


Do Tyrants Dream of Bio-Hazardous Sheep?

by NebulaViburnum



Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse)
Genre: Body Horror, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, F/M, Falling In Love, Friendship/Love, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Multi, Psychological Horror, Science Boyfriends, Science Experiments, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Thriller
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:29:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 19
Words: 194,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23439226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NebulaViburnum/pseuds/NebulaViburnum
Summary: Jill Valentine hears of Nemesis's presumed survival in a BOW based facility and goes to investigate her old foe. What happens is a relationship and friendship with Nemesis that makes her confront her old demons, especially being under Wesker . Nemesis, himself, is more than what a Tyrant should be and makes everyone around him question him as he questions his own existence. In the midst of that, Naia Nazari gets hired by Blue Umbrella to work on their research concerning Tyrants and social learning.  She accepts the job as an unappreciated teacher for Tyrants of all sorts. She meets with Jill Valentine and Nemesis and starts a strong friendship with each.Leon Kennedy who comes to the facility for his own investigation and is conflicted on how he sees Tyrant and BOWs. He meets Naia who makes him question how he views himself and Tyrants. Together, they begin to understand Tyrants are more than weapons. Things get more complicated when the Naia  realizes shown has feelings for some of the Tyrants. Only to come to know, they have feelings for her too.Could any relationship like that exist between a Tyrant and a human being? Jill, Naia, Leon and the other realise they embarked on the answer to that question.
Relationships: Chris Redfield/Original Character(s), Claire Redfield/Original Character(s), Eveline/OC, Jill Valentine & Original Character(s), Jill Valentine/Original Character(s), Leon S. Kennedy/Ada Wong, Leon S. Kennedy/Claire Redfield, Leon S. Kennedy/Mr. X | Tyrant T-00, Leon S. Kennedy/Original Character(s), Mr. X | Tyrant T-00/Claire Redfield, Mr. X | Tyrant T-00/Original Character(s), Mr. X | Tyrant T-00/Tyrant (Resident Evil: Damnation), Nemesis (Resident Evil)/Original Character(s), Nemesis-T Type/Jill Valentine, Nemesis/Jill Valentine, OC/Elite Tyrant, Rebecca Chambers/Original Character(s), Sherry Birkin/Jake Muller, Sheva Alomar/Chris Redfield
Comments: 64
Kudos: 64





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I been watching a lot of BEASTARS lately and I was like what if? I was thinking of social situations between BOWs like Tyrants and Human beings and wanted to go for it. And, yes, Umbrella University by the talented RedBlackStripe and WarioGirl also inspired me. I was thinking how BOWs could co-exist in society and was wondering of all the unqiue challenges they would face (Thanks to BEASTARS as well). And, I just went for it. I really hope you guys enjoy the fic.  
> UPDATE: After playing Resident Evil 3 Remake I had to write about Jill Valentine and Nemesis!

** The Fortunate Fall **

Deepening her  gaze she looked at the metallic locks on the gate; imposing and unfeeling like she expected it to be. The security guards were checking them with blank faces but their sternness was etched onto their physiques. They wielded their rifles, automatics, with the trained aggression that was meant to diminish any form of resistance. A scientist was talking to them, she thought his name was Brent something, on how they were to use their ID badges and what their clearance level meant. The orientation was brief as people have their own supervisors to converse with for more information. They were also told to talk to the receptionists who worked on the lobby EVERYTIME they needed to go out and that their Ids and badges were to be kept close to them. Loss of any of the cards could require disciplinary measures. Her group easily tensed at this and some gasped but quietened when a guard or two looked at them with pointed rifles.

“Yes, I understand some of us could be forgetful but...let's make a practice  tor remember. No absentminded professors here.” Brent seemed to chuckle, though underneath it was veiled chastisement and some sort of concern too. She understood it as a form of stress. Working here was never supposed to be easy and she never had easier options to begin with. “However,” Brent seems to add, as a precautionary measure, “You all probably would be too busy to even go outside much aside our own confined gardens and courtyards. Become acquainted with them. This is like a new home after all. You are staying here and you are meant to maintain these spaces as you would a home. Don't look at it merely as an institution.” There was a truthfulness to his words that actually made her swallow. She could see he had also faced the reality of it.

They walked in an orderly fashion. She noticed it looked akin to prison inmates or archaic asylums were the “infirm” were mistreated. The imagery made her think of Goffman's seminal text,  _ Asylums _ , and she did not know if that was her mind prepping her for her job by doing archival remembrance or a loose symbolism to how she  _ herself  _ would be treated despite living in the 21 st Century. She didn't wish to look anyone directly. She was already so nervous and she had not a clue what she was getting into. Some of the people there looked like interns, fresh out of colleges and universities, ready to make leaps into the world of biotechnology. One of them was being very chatty until an officer roughly told him to shut up.

“What?”

“Just keep moving...” then almost reluctantly added, “Sir...”

“Yeah, but...” but then he saw the security guard look at him harshly.

“Okay, I guess we won't get along.” he pouted and the girl beside him giggled making the security guard scoff and walk away.

“You see...” the young man whispered to his companion, “You can see he doesn't get laid often.” making the girl restrain a louder chuckle. She had to smile too. It was nice to see someone who looked less dreadful. He continued, “I guess, it's a dream huh, to work on here. I am so glad. Guess what? I get to be Gresham's group.”

“WHAT? Seriously?!” the young woman beside him looked both astounded and then a bit annoyed, “Oh man! I would love to be in that group. How come you are so lucky. Not fair.”

“Life's not fair.” he chuckled making her playfully, albeit a bit seriously, punch his shoulder, without attracting too much attention. _ I guess I feel those two are already acquainted _ .

“I am also in Gresham's team.” Another young woman spoke, she looked really composed and full of discipline, “And, from what I hear. I wouldn't be so keen unless he was not one of the head scientists here.”

“What do you mean?” the guy asked her, pouting a bit.

“Well, Gresham is called a legit sociopath by many of his colleagues. Yes, he is brilliant. One of those fictional geniuses come to life. Finished his PhD when he was seventeen and already hauled into other big companies before he decided that Umbrella was his space. But because his methods and tactics are extreme some of his peers have a disdain for him. Aside morals, it's just I heard he is a prick.” Her green eyes looked at them, “I don't mind as long as he doesn't go off the deep end. Some of those geniuses tend to do.”

_ Well, I am also in Gresham's team _ , she thought,  _ but I don't think I am as important as these scientists. I am pretty much a  _ _ behavioural _ _ researcher. _

They were walking through white  sanitised corridors that seem to have no end. She  realised that though she was in the front of the group no one had talked to her yet and she was glad because she wouldn't know how to answer these inquiries on her job status here as she herself did not fully comprehend it. She was worried. She had gotten an email from Gresham himself before she left saying that her contributions, even if small, would have an impact in some of their larger programs. Most of Umbrella's work was classified, despite its shaky history globally, a corporation had its legal rights to keep some things private. All she knew of Dr. Gresham was that he was a brilliant scientist, a famed neurologist and genetics professor.  _ If I wasn't in debt and _ _ out of a job for almost two years, I probably wouldn't have to even accept this position, _ her hands wiped away her hair,  _ I wonder what my parents would say. _

Even with Blue Umbrella being reformed many people were hesitant to work with them as the corporation's older history had its roots with carnage especially after Racoon City. Not to mention, people still think Umbrella worked a bit too sketchily in the department of BOWs so they had a hard time trusting the institution. She remembered she was quite young when the Racoon City tragedy happened and was in her teens when Umbrella, the first, went bankrupt and no one would touch it with a  ten foot pole. However, their research was still a thing to marvel at and it was lucrative, Lucrative enough to get her out of the debt.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she saw the cool smile of silvery sort of haired man, with very cool blue eyes, “Hello there. I am Dr. Alaric Gresham. Welcome to this Genetics and  Behavioural facility of Umbrella. I am sure some of you know your head supervisors, you should go with them.” She saw other doctors with him, many older than him take some of the young scientists away, briefing them already and showing them their quarters and labs.

“See you later.” the young woman smiled and winked at the funny guy.

“Sure, Sarah, definitely text me.” His hand touched hers as they both smiled. She sighed,  _ Love is in the ventilated air space _ ...she was envious, she hardly fell in love easily and maybe her last proper relationship had been six years ago.

Gresham seemed to smirk now, “So, let's go. We have one of the biggest labs in this facility.” He started walking in large strides and everyone eagerly followed him and she was left behind for a while before she caught up.

They entered the Labs that had the name Tyrian on it embossed on its  neonated nameplate with a lot of importance. The architecture had an atrium in the middle that branched out into many systematic catwalks. Down below seemed to be an organic pond  _ pulsating _ with some kind of life. Are they making electricity? She looked astounded as they kept on walking. Even the large tree in the middle seemed to be hosting some creatures and helping making oxygen. Though she so some things move about, which didn't seem like animals. “I guess, it goes without saying, we are quite the leading researchers and scientists in the world to use bio-technology in levels that are not even released to the public let alone some government agencies. So, everything here is beyond classified. If you are ever caught saying anything out of turn.” she noticed his eyes narrowed, “Well, Blue Umbrella's security will take care of you. If not, some our organic weapons wouldn't mind a free meal.”

Everyone got deathly quiet hearing Gresham make such an overt threat. Not to mention he was smiling at them, “I do not mean to alarm you but scientists and our employees should know the truth. Learn it, live with it, feed on it, digest it — nor else you will be in turn eaten and regurgitated. Spat out. So, loyalty and logic go hand in hand.” He actually clasped his hands and smiled more widely. None of the people in the group made any motion. They were all starting to wonder if working under Gresham was a good idea. Too late to turn back now.

She looked at the structure and made a deduction. Though she kept it to herself.

“Yes?”

She looked alarmed as Gresham looked at her, “I. ..I didn't say anything.” she meekly answered.

“No, but you looked like you hit upon something.” He walked towards her and she saw they were the same height, give or take an inch or maybe not at all, his cool eyes looked at her unflinching.

“It is not important.”

“Share it with me anyway.” She noted he did not use “us” in the sentence but “me”. It was telling to her.

“I. ..uh , noticed...” she gulped, “The structure of this place reminds me of  loosely of the Yggdrasil or The Tree of Enlightenment. A Banyan tree with many nodes and branches.”

Gresham looked at her for a bit. Not an emotion present. Then he grinned, “Well, aren't you keen.” she didn't know if he was insulting her or complimenting her or BOTH and she had no idea how such contradictions so casually came out from him, “I see you are our  _ little _ behavioural researcher, right?” That was not very pleasing, she tried to fight off the urge to get him out of her face, which he seemed to come closer to, others noticed, “What was your name, again?” He seemed to already know. It was how he looked at her. '

“I am  Naia .  Naia Eve Nazari.”

He stepped back then and tilted his head, “I hope you know that you are actually a bit worse off than some of our interns considering your services could be vital while other times may not make any sense at all. You are basically a glorified technician.” That hurt, she looked away, feeling a sense of embarrassment, “That's what many of the old geezers I worked with stated. But we are not the new generation without some of our refinement and progressiveness. My closer peers and I would like to see in action, more or less. This would be interesting. Most interesting. Even as a social experiment. We look forward working with you Miss Nazari.” Then smiling, “I guess I can call you  Naia .”

“Uh, yes. Of course, Dr. Gresham.” she was confused at how to take all of this.

“You guys can call me Alaric unless you see me pissed off. Then it's Dr. Gresham, though the interns are supposed to call me Dr. Gresham anyways.” He laughed and walked forward.

Naia saw the young man and the other young woman look at her for a while. The lingering gaze of the young woman was longer and the young man looked at Gresham with some form of cringing look. Unsure of how to read him. There were five people in total including her, and Gresham seemed to already make people uncomfortable. They walked in front to the labs. '

There was a scientist there working on some reports.  Naia had to admit she was very beautiful with her blonde hair, porcelain skin, almost close to powder and dark blue eyes. She looked at them come in. She had no smile. “I am Dr. Yvonne Byron. You may refer to me as Dr. Byron.” she looked at Gresham when she stated this, perhaps knowing his seeming informal tones were not to work with her, “I run these labs with Dr. Gresham. I am also the chief scientists in charge of  Gerichtslinde , that large tree you saw in the atrium, you know it is one of its kind. We developed it and we must maintain it. The power structure is also a mix between a bee hive and the tree has some of its power cells transported it to it via us even though we designed it to be a bit  _ omnivorous _ .” the last sentence got a reaction from people even  Naia , “The tree helps support this research structure and also helps in transferring items as some of his roots and branches are bridges. We  realised some of our Bio-organics should get used to structures aside basic urban areas and  Gerichtslinde has strong enough beams and structural fibers to hold tons of weight. It has been infused with a self-regeneration virus so it can deftly  _ heal _ itself when damaged. I suppose two of you are supposed to be working closely to me.” She picked up a chart with names, “Who is the biochemical engineer and gene editor who also has a Masters in genetic manipulation.”

“I am Dr. Kevin Landon.” a man who seemed closer in age to Gresham, “I'm the engineer.”

“I am Dr. Freida Axton.” it was the green-eyed woman, her accent seemed British, “I am the Genetics Specialist.”

“Good.” Byron softly smiled at them, “We should get to work as soon as you are shown your quarters. First, we need to orient you on some of our computers that  can do real time plant fiber processing. We do this every hour to see the mutations of  Gerichtslinde and to make sure the tree is in good health. It also allows to back up our data and make new datasets. Though you are not going to be working on  Gerichtslinde fully. You have to show me your capabilities and proficiency with our  customised software we have made for it. DONAR.”

_ Well, she is definitely business. Though her eyes seem far away _ .  Naia observed, only to have those eyes look at her.

“Well, I suppose the rest is with you.” Byron commented nonchalantly to Gresham only for him to smirk.

“That one,  “ he pointed at us, “Is probably  gonna work with you as well.”

“Who are you?”

“ Naia Eve Nazari.”

“Oh, the  behavioural person.”  Naia noticed a lack of interest and a form of casual dismissal, “Not bad I suppose. Dr. Wagner has less to complain about now, doesn't she?” there was a soft smile,  Naia could have  swore it had some malice, “Not that she is as reliable as Dr.  Kensley .”  _ Ouch, wow I didn't know she would say that _ .

“Didn't take you as the gossipy type.” Gresham laughed a bit.

“It's an open secret me and Wagner don't really see eye to eye. I think she should have stayed in art therapy or something rather than come here.” Byron raised a dismissive hand.

Gresham did not reply to that besides another smile. He looked at the remaining two men; one of them was the chirpy ones from the line, “Would you care to introduce yourselves, then?”

Both of them looked a bit alarmed but then spoke, “I am Abel Crawford, Masters in Molecular Genetics.” the talkative guy spoke out with a smile, though uncertainty held his features.

“I am Amrit Sarkar, Masters in Neuroscience.” The other young man looked confidently around him, “It's a pleasure.” he added.

Gresham turned his attention to  Naia , “You know, Dr. Xia Nian Zhen is free right now. Maybe he can help you with the tour of the facility. I need to orient the others. Also, Dr. Xia, well, he is _ intimately _ familiar with our specimens.” That did not sound great. Something told  Naia , this was Gresham's way of making a sick joke at the expense of others, “Well, he was one of lead geneticists and he documents most of the BOWs.” And, deftly, as if pushing a tennis racket towards a ball, he switches gears from perverse joking to seriousness, “And, he is been a bit down lately. I am sure seeing a new member may help him.”

As usual, his statement seemed unpredictable, “Right, Dr. Gresham.”

“That's his office right there.” Gresham absentmindedly pointed as he pointed Abel and Amrit to follow him.

Naia noticed Byron in deep conversation with Kevin and Freida. Her green eyes turned to look at her for a while. Out of everyone, Freida seemed the only person who was regarding her.  Naia didn't know why but she looked away and proceeded to walk towards an office with Dr. Xia Nian Zhen name on it. She softly and politely  knock . Only to hear something of a lamp falling down making her jump.

“Fuck, what do you want? Alaric, you bastard, that's not you  is it?” The voice was hoarse nor else  Naia knew it may have been a scream. She was confused. Gresham surely knew? Didn't he? Was this another game to him? She was beginning to think Freida had been right deducing Gresham to have a mean streak and sociopathic tendencies.

“I-uh...”  _ What should I do? _

There was a pause from inside. As if registering it was not Gresham. A struggle, hearing the chair move clumsily away, the door half-opened in a wild manner.  Naia saw a disheveled man looking at her, no staring in fury, making her uncomfortable, “Who the fuck  are you?” he spat it out, coldly.  Naia felt a bit annoyed. She did not even know Dr. Xia and he seemed hostile to her for no reason. If this was a bad time, how would she to know? Also, did she smell, alcohol? Was he drunk, at work?

“I am  Naia . I am a  behavioural technician or  behavioural teacher. I been asked to join Blue Umbrella and as of today I have joined.” She nodded, “It is nice to meet you Dr. Xia Nian Zhen.”

Nian Zhen looked at her and then all fury washed away, “Sorry...” he seemed to have gotten his bearings, “I am not at my best...” he looked at her again, “ Naia , should I call you that? What's your last name?”

“ Naia is fine. I am  Naia Eve Nazari.” She noticed he froze up at the name Eve a bit.

“God, another Eve...” he seemed to comment to himself, then looked at her, “Apologies again. Not at my best. May I help you  Naia ? And seeing we are being informal you can call me Nian Zhen. Trust me. Doctor Xia is probably on a permanent vacation.”

Naia wondered what happened to him. “I. ..uh , was told by Dr. Gresham to consult you about the grounds and stuff.” she was a bit nervous as in all honesty he looked like he would say “no” and be upset that Gresham even made a referral to him.

“Oh.” Was all he spoke as he opened the door. He paused for a minute to stroke his chin.  Naia stood there feeling a bit exposed. Some scientists walked past her. They whispered amongst themselves and made gestures towards Nian Zhen. One of them even got a glare from him and they proceeded to walk away quickly. Then he looked at  Naia again, “I suppose why not? I could use the walk.”

He started walking and  Naia followed him. She noted that his hair was in a mess, his lab coat stained and his grey shirt looked dirty and that his tie was half falling off from his collar, the trousers also ruffled as if he was sleeping in them.  _ A Late night  _ _ work _ _? _ Naia thought, though his attitude either meant he was being eccentric or that he was just tired. Or, was it something else? The fellow scientists had a lot to talk about him. Behind his back.

They looked at the lab on the farther west side. In a small observation room, a non-bipedal animal seemed to be walking around. Even on the walls and snarling at everything as if it was suspicious.  Naia recognised it as a BOW and its sharp fangs and claws meant don't mess with me. Wasn't this something called a Licker? She heard the name before. And saw its mouth come out with a tongue that looked larger than its body. It was creepy. Eerily disturbing and fascinating.

“This you can see is a fucking Licker.” His choice of words made her give him a brief look. He proceeded to look at some charts, turning the page on the binder, “Lickers are basically blind and prone to mostly sound, secondary is its namesake, it's taste. I guess you know those details a bit. Some noises are bad for it. This is a soundproof room. Obviously, silence has a ringing tone too. I suppose for the Licker it can be annoying if persistent. So, the room has a good enough ventilation chamber to calm it down and not make it go insane. After all, torturing a BOW seems  kinda messed up at times. Though we can enforce that punishment, solitary confinement if you will, if it does not behave.” Looking at the charts again, “Lickers don't usually have an identifiable gender. These BOWs usually  wanna procreate in other ways. But some evolved Lickers may seem to have well something akin to a gender. More on that later. We usually called them well It or something. They are hostile, ferocious, fiercely territorial — despite previous beliefs, Lickers are not unified as much as we wanted to believe. The Lickers are a bit like large predators who have packs. Think of them as mutated hyenas or prides of lions, they like to stay in certain spaces, and like weird versions of sloths, hardly move unless they feel threatened or hungry. In our research facility, we have numbered the Lickers and we have around seven different hordes — we like to call them that aside packs you know to give them a base identify of their own and helps in research differentiation when required. This one here is from J-23 horde. It was shown to attack one of its brethren. It is not under punishment but merely observation.”

Naia had to admit, Nian Zhen knew a lot of information and could say all of them without much of an interruption though he smelled like an incorrigible drunk. In the next moment, he burped out loud and continued walking with  Naia behind him looking at the Licker. Nian Zhen came back for a moment. There was a switch there and while she comprehended what it was Nian Zhen switched it on, “How's it hanging bro?!” Nian Zhen screamed and the alarmed Licker actually screamed and slashed at the observation window and  Naia almost fell back and few scientists yelled in panic. Nian Zhen walked away laughing with some people cursing at him as he went back.  Naia saw the Licker look around as if assessing where the threat came from. After a minute, it eased down and lay on the padded floor.

“You coming?”

“Yeah.”  Naia walked along with him but looked as though she was meeting an eccentric.  _ First Gresham, then Byron and now this guy. _ .. Though she still couldn't read him fully. Was he fully just an eccentric?

They were looking at more lab specimens. One of them was a chained zombie like man. Snarling at them, his face half-eaten off and his spinal column exposed. Though he was in a state of decay he was still wearing a rubber sort of wrap around him, made of plastic. “Ah yes, this dude, we just call him John. No one knows who he is. And, in all fairness, no one ran facial recognition scan to find out. As you can see the T-virus or a combination of it with G has made him a zombie. And he has scrapes. Prolonged exposure to T makes you rot either way after a while. John here just hangs around all day. We give him synthetic sort of IV as food and flesh to munch on. After all, those infected seem to also crave  _ biting  _ things with their own mouth. John teaches us more about T-virus infected people or the undead. The undead are definitely solely; they have rudimentary communication tools. They may stay together for actually muscle memory and the edge of familiarity. You see they were once alive and human and they understand the basic ideas of groups. However, they seem to also have a feeding limit. Sometimes, if they don't further  mutate they may actually lose parts of themselves due to their cells being dead and unable to break down complex meat substances they ingest. Prolonged cell and molecular damage  means that after a while their cells may ingest bits of their  ownselves .  So zombies are BOWs are well, for people who want efficiency and a long “shelf-life” not compatible. Zombies are the undead thus do not function well as a weapon. They are what consumerists would say quantity over quality. To me, it is a desecration of life. Many would argue so was the Licker. However, The Lickers are not necessarily this kind of BOW. The undead risen only to destroy and eat. Also, despite the fabled potency of the A-virus it also can be subjected to similar levels of degradation and degeneration. It has been  theorised that the more brain  matter the A-virus sheds as part of its mutation, the “weapon” becomes quite powerless to listen to commands and go back to instinctual feeding or wrathful destruction.”

“Uh, just don't ask him how he is hanging...”  Naia listened to his facts but then just blurted that out before she could stop herself. She clasped her mouth and looked away.

Nian Zhen glared at her for a minute but then laughed out into coughs, “Something tells me I will like you.”

He then just started walking and  Naia followed him again. They were now outside the labs, after taking a left turn and right, they were back in the space that contained  Gerichtslinde . “I bet Byron told you all about this tree; most of those pathways are part of it.” She noticed the  otherworldy aura of the tree. Nian Zhen went in front of the tree and she walked with him, “This tree is like one of the hearts of the research facility. It works like a form of hive too. Helps support the BOWs we research on. On the lower floors we have some of the Licker hordes. J-23 has one of the first floors. They are known to be aggressive and very lethal. Then there is N-55, on a lower basement, for some reason, they like water, their horde enclosure is full of water, and they can swim a bit, which is not necessarily a Licker trait but N-55's use of its water based enclosure gives a lot of material to work on. BOWs have been banned globally but some places still use them as preventive measures and well, the Collaborative Species Act has asked us to see if vaccines can be developed from them and if these beings can be preserved and seemingly have a normal enough life. It does make some of our ecologists and anthropologists interested. I don't know if BOWs could live on their own on the outside. Nice pipe dream or whatever though.”

Naia was intently looking at his expressionless face as he spoke of the Lickers when she a  _ face _ look at her. Or, what was like a _ face _ . She screamed horrified and fell back and pushed back two and three times on instinct.

Nian Zhen looked more concerned about her screaming than the  _ face _ she was screaming at, “Wow, calm down  there rookie.” Nian Zhen leaned against the  gl;ass for a while as the thing had hissed at her yet stopped when it got a chastising look from the good doctor. It calmed down immediately and looked at him with complete trust and discipline. “Sorry, I should have...” he approached her and helped her up as she shook all over, “These are our workers. They help maintain  Gerichtslinde . They are symbiotes T-virus plant bipeds. Or, plant zombies as the term go. They feed off the tree but also help maintain the tree. As you might know, the tree has some sentience; it possesses these mutations and permutations to be a form of bio-organic mainframe but the symbiotes help its overall maintenance.”

“Dr. Byron wasn't kidding when she called it a hive.”  Naia looked so dumbfounded. The Plant Zombie looked at her with some regard. And, akin to respect. Then it went about doing what it was doing.  Naia could see the bulbs pulsating. Its mouth a cavernous row of teeth. It saw go near a root and start biting and eating nutrients and then move towards a branch with bulbs of its own. Tendrils came out of its bulbs with yellow saps and it seemed feeding the tree's bulbs while looking in a trance. It was fascinating. Yet quite like some stop motion sort of nightmare film.

“Yeah some people vomit when they first come here.” Nian Zhen spoke softly, “Can't blame them. You need time to get used to all of this.” Looking at them, in thought, “They can get aggressive like the Lickers and they can really become territorial as well but they are more unified than most. They love their home and Mother tree.”

“Who is the Matriarch then?”

Nian Zhen cringed when he heard the term. Yet composed himself quickly, “There is no solitary matriarch as it would not be feasible for us to have all the plant zombies respond to one ruler so the chain of command is someone broken down. We have more than one matriarch or ruler to say. It has some regimentation like a military unit or any form of societal hierarchy. The plants do lack more autonomy as they listen mostly to the tree and other leaders. But they help us well in keeping our system cost effective and rate of mortality down. In the initial days, the drafts of the tree made from parasitic tissues that the Nemesis model was based on had moods. Though it did necessarily hunger for humans it did enjoy hurting them. We reconfigured our system and made the tree less of a parasitic organism. And, the  plant based zombies help out a lot. In many areas actually even outside the Atrium. With minimal workers and them we can control a lot of plants and other mutated vegetation. Some of them have helped in making sure people are more or less immunized from the A-virus after that incident in New York.”

That still doesn't explain everything and he seems to be hiding something,  Naia thought. Though she knew better than to push it. Nian Zhen was right. People would get a bit disoriented or sick seeing all these life form and BOWs but at least she hadn't lost what little she ate in the morning. Her stomach rumbled a bit. She ignored it. Even if it was bad for her health she did not know when she would be able to eat again. Perhaps some ramen later? She didn't know what the cafeteria had and she was a bit worried if she would lose her appetite till then.

Nian Zhen looked at her, “Hey you know. I am  kinda hungry myself.” Shit, she looked away embarrassed, “I think we been going through this for a while. And  its close to noon. We should visit one of the cafeterias. Well, it would also be a research thing.”

“Research thing?”  Naia inquired, “You mean...” she looked at  Gerichtslinde and looked a bit in shock, “Don't tell me some of the food comes from the tree.”

Nian Zhen chuckled, “Nah, man. That would a bit too close for comfort. We have organically spliced many foods though to taste great and be nutritious. Trust me they are pretty good. Some of the executives  wanna give all those fast food joints a run for their money. Though this cafeteria is not always open to staff rather the staff doesn't always go to eat there. The noise gets to them from time to time. And, most people would need a permit. Seeing you the  behavioural tech and teacher you have access. It's one of your perks. Even if you do some of work that may be still deemed unessential.”

Naia was intrigued but also confused. “Why don't most people have access to this cafeteria?”

“You'll see.” The smile he had on his lips made  Naia somewhat nervous. What did he mean by that? Anyone could wonder.

There were security patrolling the halls near the cafeteria. Most of them were carrying non-standardized weaponry.  Naia could only wonder what their logic was aside safety protocols. She had noticed sparse security in most of the hallways they had passed. They had passed four in total. It was near the far east side away from the laboratory chambers and  Gerichtslinde's atrium. The hallways had smaller offices and computational equipment. Some had interns working on certain mainframes, ensuring cooling equipment worked properly and the machines were well ventilated. Some of the smaller rooms seem to be study rooms in universities where scientists and researchers were typing or discussing academic papers or data sets. A presentation was going on in one of them that was showing figures on N-55 Lickers and their ecology.  Naia recognised some of the people who were with her in the morning being oriented on Licker specialties and environmental attributes alongside protective gear. The head doctors also discussed papers written on Lickers and how they have given them to prestigious institutes. She could not hear them via the glass but some of the gestures on the slides seem to indicate that along with a picture of the Alexander Institute and a picture of blurred bodies of its attack back in 2016 or 2017.

“The labs can get filled with a lot of distractions.  So these rooms are there or prepping stuff. Also, the people who work on other jobs need these spaces. We actually had two writers come on here too. They been allowed special clearances of course as none of them are journalists and Umbrella needs the public relations. One of them wants to write a book on Lickers and is a bit of a nutjob if you ask me. The other is a political writer who wants to write about the world in time of all these BOWs. There have been incidences of rogue BOWs living in abandoned farmhouses and such. Those  rumours are not entirely without merit. And, understanding how BOWs adapt to the world they were meant to destroy fascinates that one.”  Naia had to admit; Nian Zhen was a person who seemed friendly enough to impart all of his knowledge and wisdom. She was sure he was closer to her age and  a older than Gresham and Byron. He had a patience to him they lacked. A sense of communal acceptance. Though he looked young. “We shouldn't get sidetracked.” he kept walking.

“You worked for Umbrella for long?”

She couldn't help but ask the question yet after saying it she wondered if she should have asked him. “Well, there was a period of my life I was a shut in and not working at all. But ever since I was twenty-five, what am I now, thirty-four? Forget all the time, I been working for Blue Umbrella since it reformed from being a classical baddie.”

She had to chuckle a bit at this. After the encounter she had with that weird looking plant or ivy zombie she was happy there was banter between them. Concerning their first impressions were less than cordial an hour or two ago (or was it more). Nian Zhen had been showing her equipment, the Licker, centrifuges working on BOW blood samples, a Licker eating a carcass of a sheep wool still stuck to its mouth, some smaller gardens, other labs with blood and other fluid work, a small research team who was working on the immune systems of Lickers and their mutated WBCs to now this cafeteria. So much time has been passed and she was actually feeling less awry in his company, “Well, I guess you are year or two  younger than me.”

He looked at her, “You are like thirty-five?”

She nodded. “You don't look like it much.” He smiled.

“Neither do you. Though I guess I have been a failure most of my life so...” she shrugged, thinking of her twenties and how she also had issues in schools, learning difficulties and the like, she had a hard time  socialising with others as well. Her  flatmates thought she had sucked and kept away from her in her  undegrad days in university. She was accepted into one of the lower tier ones. It still was hard studying and concentrating; her major had been psychology with a minor in anthropology. She had barely passed her research thesis thus had a hard time getting into post-grad. Yet her supervisor and professors were not unhappy with her work. She had published with her supervisor in a  well known enough psychology journal on intercommunication of species in a controlled environment and also symbiote communal living done by certain groups of people. Gresham had referred to her research paper when sending her an email or two. He didn't talk to her directly much as his personal aide and lab assistant, Sam Doors, had written her. She had seen a glimpse of him in the Tyrion Labs as they had  have three Skype conversations. He did not really  indicating anything in her presence and was simply talking to Amrit and Abel.  Naia understood that he was not so bothered with her as he had to orient Gresham's new subordinates.

She had been teaching in a community college as a lecturer and assistant to a senior professor when she got fired. The community college was having some funds issues for years and several staff members recently had been under suspicions and now there were legal cases afoot. Her senior professor had also passed away when the court proceedings started though he had no guilt. She had tearfully attended his funeral. She had been out of a job for almost two years surviving on money borrowed from her parents and was so depressed. With the job opportunity at Umbrella, given it was now Blue Umbrella, still its messy past would make anyone think a few times. She did not possess that luxury. They had paid some of the money to her upfront. They mentioned the job was going to be in a specialized facility, with BOWs present and it could be dangerous. As a gesture of goodwill, they had paid her something of an advance, though measly compared what was promised if her services were more than exceptional and viable replications could be implemented on it. However, if not, she was told by Doors beforehand she would receive a decent enough severance and let go. She had four months to show at least minimum results. It was a tight time frame; new field and she was not so qualified. Yet, she was not expensive and more or less expendable so she seemed good enough for the position.

“I am in debt and I guess it's good enough a wash out like me still got a job in such a large corporation.”

Before Nian Zhen could respond they were interrupted by a darkish blonde or medium brunette woman who looked at him with purpose, “Oh shit.” Nian Zhen commented under his breath. 

Naia wanted to ask him what was wrong when the lady marched up towards them with a military gait and complete assuredness. “Nian Zhen, seems you finally found your way out of a bottle.” 

“What do you want, Valentine?” he gritted his teeth as he looked at her.  Naia studied the woman. She was in excellent health, taunt lithe muscular physique, strong arms, beautiful face with a perfect jawline, lovely hair tied in a ponytail that reached a bit on her back. 

“Stop getting testy. I hardly see you outside of your office. Nor do I see you with anyone. You  gotta stick inside there like some kind  oif bat or are you going to be useful to me?” she challenged him, her composure firm and imposing.  Naia realised no one should mess with this ‘Valentine’ person. She looked like she could hand over anyone’s ass over to them quite easily. 

“Useful to you? Valentine, do you pay me?”

“Well, they are paying you to do work in the facility, which you seem to be doing a lot of.” 

Nian Zhen looked completely annoyed, “So, sue me. I got more to handle than your past histories with BOWs.”

“And, how is that working out? You seem to be on the department’s back burner with you being a drunk.” 

“Valentine, can you just, like fuck off?” 

“Fuck off like you? I mean...” she sneered, “Not like everyone has the luxury of  slacing off.” 

“Fuck you. You always  gotta hit low.” 

“And, you aren’t? You been avoiding me for a week now?”

Nian Zhen blinked, “It’s been a week?” 

“Glad to know you are still in this century. Yeah, genius, it’s been a week.” She looked exasperated, “You are supposed to finally let me meet  _ it _ again. But you been drinking up kegs in your office and even your assistant does more work now than you.” 

“You know we call  _ it _ a __ _ he _ now.” Nian Zhen sighed, “This is your problem Valentine. You are not going to see past him as a weapon.”   
  
“ _ It _ is a weapon!” Valentine argued, “It tried to kill me and Brad! And, I still remember all that fucker’s punches!” Then closing her fists, “The reality is that he’s a killing machine. I can’t see whatever he is as anything else. Umbrella made it to kill others. It is not going to change. Maybe now it won’t try to kill me but it will do a lot of damage. That’s  it’s purpose.” 

“This is precisely you cannot meet  Nemesis. I told you. You fucked him up and he is pretty much well...like any other sick person. You try to engage him like before we may have problems and the last  thing, we need is Nemesis going on the rampage in the facility.” Nian Zhen attempted to explain. 

“But I have some rights to meet the bastard who persistently tried to kill me!” she challenged, “Like, why don’t I? You said you would be a mediator. And,” she folded her arms “I waited long enough. I will play nice. I promise.” 

“Uh...”

Both the woman and Nian Zhen looked at  Naia , “What are you guys talking about?”

“Ah,  Naia ...I guess we forgot about you...”

_ Figures _ ,  Naia sighed.

“We are sorry.” Nian Zhen  apologised , “This is  Naia .” 

“Jill Valentine, I work for the BSAA.” 

“ Naia Nazari, I am recently employed by Umbrella to work with Tyrants.” She shook her hand. 

“Really?” Jill surveyed her, “Are you a new scientist?”

“Not really, I am trained in psychology, I am supposed to help Tyrants adjust to the human world.” 

“That’s...” Jill looked at them with some amazement, “Seriously?” she looked at Nian Zhen.

“Yeah, we want to work on it.” Nian Zhen looked at his arm, “Shit, sorry  Naia . I forgot something. I will be back.” 

Naia wanted to say something but Nian Zhen left quickly.

“I guess he did forget something. And, he doesn’t  wanna talk to me more. Well,” Jill smirked, “Not right now.” 

“I guess.”  Naia rubbed her head.

“Sorry about that. You got caught in the middle.” Jill looked at her earnestly. 

“Nah, it’s okay. I guess you guys had some things to talk about.” 

“That’s saying something.” Jill chuckled, “I know we may seem antagonistic towards each other.” She continued with a smile, “But Nian Zhen and I get along very well. That is why I was frustrated that he was cooped up in his office and we haven’t talked in a week. He was also avoiding my texts. Hell, maybe he didn’t see ‘ em .” The added, “I guess I am also worried about him.” 

“Yeah, I didn’t find him in the best-case scenario too.”  Naia confessed. She paused for a moment, “Something happened to him, didn’t it?”

Jill observed  Naia . She had the looks of a skilled soldier, expressionless yet keen. She folded her arms, “I shouldn’t say anything. I know it’s personal. I am not in the liberty right now to say if you don’t know.” 

“Sorry.”

“No, it’s fine. It’s a normal question. But not one to be discussing out here in the hallways.” Jill explained, “Maybe somewhere else. And, you may hear about it. All those pesky people in the labs talk about it a lot.” 

“Yeah I saw some junior scientists talking behind his back.”  Naia informed her.

“Seriously, those guys should find something else to talk about. I guess Nian Zhen has become an easy target. I know how he feels though. I felt a lot of it in my entire life. I was popping pills when I was twenty-three, back in ‘98, after  Arklay . Things can get bad and worse. I just want him to fight it when he can. I may have seen on his back. But I trust him. I get along with him best. Byron can’t stand me and Gresham hides his contempt from time to time.”   
  
“Contempt?”

“Yeah, I am not really for BOWs. I guess it is hard for me to trust them after so much but I am not  gonna let any ignorance judge me. I am just trying to understand why Gresham is so interested in these projects. Byron seems a bit less of an enthusiast and she will glad to just work on  Gerichtslinde . That’s like what she is all about. Gresham bothers me. I bother me.” Jill smiled, “Though it suits me fine.” 

“What’s this about Nemesis?” 

“Well, Nemesis, is, the one I fought.” Jill visible cringed, “They salvaged the bastard somehow. And, I  wanna meet it.” 

“You hate Nemesis a lot? I read the files a bit. You destroyed him with former Umbrella’s NEST 2 experimental energy bean weaponry, am I right?” 

Jill smirked, “Yup. And Nemesis was relentless after me. The namesake was right though. Of course, they  wanna protect their project. Apparently, they  wanna work on him, treat his NE-Type parasite for future models. Nian Zhen says that Nemesis, the one I fought, is pretty much a  _ retired _ BOW. I never thought I would hear such a thing. And, seeing the history we share...” Jill paused, looking away for a while, “They are afraid I will be trigger happy and be happy to just blow up Nemesis again if I feel a threat. Can’t really blame ‘ em for thinking that, though. I mean, I won’t hesitate to take a shot.”

“Seeing this facility works on BOWs and are I guess ‘friendly’ to them I can see how your perspective would make the people who work here nervous.”  Naia chuckled a bit getting a smile out of Jill. 

“So,” she tilts her head, “Why are you here?” 

“I am afraid I don’t know the particulars all that well myself. All I know is I am supposed to be a teacher.” 

“A teacher?” Jill raised her brow, “To the BOWs?”

“Yes.” 

Jill looked pensive, “And, you are not sure the  _ type _ of teacher you are supposed to be?” 

“No. I am not.” 

Jill put her hands on her hips, “I suppose it is great you don’t know everything.”

Naia found a small bolt of fury inside her. It was true that compared to the people she came in she may be the least qualified but to always being told that was getting on her nerves. She wanted to say a snarky comeback but —

“I actually mean that as a compliment.” Jill responded, coming a bit forward playfully as if sensing  Naia’s distrust, who easily withered, the anger gone but a blush. Jill Valentine had a gorgeous face, with fuller lips than hers and the peach  lip-gloss suited her nicely, her eyes were blue and took in her features as well, “Sorry if I sounded mean. Nian Zhen also acts like.” she moved away, “Everyone does. I am glad someone is as uncertain as me. Even if you have come to aid BOWs. We still can well you know have that similarity.” 

“Thanks, I...”  Naia looked away, “ Dr. Gresham also stated I may prove to be useless. It is kinda sad you know. Coming here and getting to feel you are out of place.” 

“I know that feeling.” Jill folded her arms again, “But Gresham should know when to keep his mouth shut. That bastard is  kinda sadistic. And, I am not the only one who thinks that. Especially, if he has helped hire you, he should know when to quit it.” 

“You know. You are the  _ only _ person who  _ actually  _ talked to me the whole day. I mean not because you had to.”  Naia rubbed her shoulder, “Thank you. I feel a bit at ease when you are talking to me.” 

Jill looked at her with some tenderness, “Nian Zhen is talking to you.” 

“I mean he has to in a  way, doesn’t he?”

“You are not so convinced.” she smiled again. 

“No. I mean I get it. But he has to at some point.  Dr. Gresham said he was free so...” 

“True but...” Jill’s face brightened, “I mean. You seem like a nice person to talk to. Sweet to.” Jill knew she did not  _ only _ mean personality. Yet, perhaps,  Naia did not need to know it right away. Then she darkened, “Seriously, no one talked to you?”

“Well, they got busy. I am in Dr Gresham’s unit.”

“Oh, Tyrion Laboratory.” Jill snickered, “Most of them will eat Gresham and Byron’s asses if you told them.” she looked bright again, “I mean ass kissers like that are  gonna stay the same.  Bureaucracy speaks the same language. I was in  Racoon City’s STARS unit and there  were the same sort of people there. They would do everything Chief Irons and former Captain  Wesker told them.” 

“Is it true?”

“What is?”

“There was a scandal some seven years ago. That Chief Irons was a serial killer?”

Jill looked sad, “Yeah, it’s true. I know Raccoon City was destroyed but Claire Redfield had some documentations and some people who escaped earlier had some evidence too. You know. I always knew Irons was a  sleezebag . But a murderer? It didn’t cross my mind at the time. I was still younger and I wanted to trust my superiors to an extent, I guess. It was hard for me to also believe  Wesker was a bitch. Yet, we all learn. Life is like that. You just learn.” 

“There were some materials on Albert  Wesker I have read.”  Naia looked at her keenly, “I know this may seem insensitive but during a time and to an extent now, many psychologists have attempted to understand his motivations aside megalomania. They have always been interested in him as a research subject. I think some people still respect him. Though for me it bothered me. You know, he had everything but he always seemed to keep on wanting more.” 

Jill smiled, “Knowing  Wesker , if research was done on him shedding him in a positive light, he would easily get a hard on.” They both laughed, “Though.” she continued, “You are right.  Wesker never seemed to be very happy in life. And, you are right, he always wanted more. Never satisfied. To the point, he was okay trying to destroy the world if it meant he could get an iota of satisfaction. Very sad but I am glad we got rid of him.” 

Nian Zhen slowly walked back, “Look,” he pointed, “Got my wrist band.” 

“Took your sweet time.” Jill commented, “Can’t really complain.” she looked at  Naia directly while saying this.  Naia found herself looking away, blushing and tucking a bit of hair behind her ear. 

“Yeah, well, Jill. I will talk to you later. I mean it.”  Naia noticed it was not ‘Valentine’ anymore. They were being warm again. 

“Yeah sure.” Jill was walking away, “Hey  Naia ,” she called back, “I am in Room 720. Give me a call or come over.” 

Naia nodded  and smiled. 

Nian Zhen looked at both of them, “ NIce to see you and Jill are getting along.”

“Will you let her meet Nemesis?” 

“Maybe you can help me with that. Nemesis had been in a coma for over 20 years so to speak. The parasite rejected countless bodies and now finally decided to bind itself again. Nemesis usually sleeps all day and all night. Gets violent at times but is usually docile. So docile that most people call him ‘Puppy.’ It is an insulting nickname but not everyone’s nice. We can go to see him later if you like. After all, I think we could use your skills to assess him.” 

Naia nodded. 

“You know have faith in yourself. I trust you being here.”

Nian Zhen  quietly spoke catching  Naia a bit off-guard. They walked in silence for a few minutes. Nian Zhen entered his wrist band as a clearance. “This is your chance to prove all of them wrong you know.” There was a tender smile, “You can do this. Trust me. I have a feeling.”

They walked in. The lights were brighter here. She had to check her eyes a bit for a minute as she felt the hallways were a bit dimmer. Then she heard the noises. At first all she registered was this screen or really fortified looking glass. She wondered why it was there to begin with. Nian Zhen was talking to a guard when  her eyes grew wide.

They were around 10-14 feet tall, most of them were grey, muscular, toned, wearing trench coats of sorts with metal braided throughout their backs, large steel plated boots, others wore leather but with deep fastenings, one or two looked like they were large BOWs who once were human, there were some that looked like improved versions of the Nemesis T-Type Tyrant she had heard about and seen some photos of. The larger ones were mostly grey and they had steel plated  armour also around their necks; their faces were very human-like, their eyes white hot flames with focus and limited expressions and their foot falls were strong but disciplined and coordinated. They also had numbers on their sides as if markers or identification. Most of them looked similar to one another due to cloning.  Naia took a step back overwhelmed by who or what she was seeing. This is quite...something...

“Well, these are our Tyrants. There are many here you know. The UN may have banned them from war but they are still around in many places. Sometimes they serve as special tactics response in countries. Of course, it has to be a top order and usually deployed to fight other BOWs nowadays.” Nian Zhen explained, “Most of them come for education purposes in our facilities I guess you will be working a lot with them. Isn't your priority empathy based?”

Naia nodded. “Basically,” Nian Zhen continued, “Tyrants don't understand human customs, nor religion, or philosophies or cultural norms. There have issues of Tyrants breaking into buildings of residents and other places without much of a qualm even when they seemingly are attempting to help people around them. Tyrants are important BOWs to many as they have a lot of muscle and can actually clear out large quantities of  infrasructure and other rubble. Yes, we have had a BOW who could control people's minds...” Nian Zhen stopped a bit, “But that's not always the best course of action. Nor does it always help in eradicating other problems.  Also Blue Umbrella noted that Tyrants have the capacity to be strong and intelligent; have some empathy where necessary and show dedicated if taught it. That's the hypothesis any way so we all  gonna test it with you.” Nian Zhen smiled, “If we  succeed we will go down in history. No  pressure right?”

“Are you kidding me?”  Naia looked at him, it was like Atlas was hoisting three planets at once. Suddenly, her job became more gargantuan. She wondered what she would have to do now. Basic orientation has not covered a timetable or a syllabus to follow. She also came to the conclusion she would probably have to work on many things on scratch.

“Nah, but you are not alone. You are working with a team of other psychologists, a small one. Well head of this education program is Dr. Agatha Wagner, she is a  kinda zany and many people don't like her. She was teaching three Tyrant R models on the importance of art. One of them destroyed an artist's artwork because  apparently he was triggered by it for some reason or as people joked Agatha can be a bit too boring at times too with her drawling on. Dr. Helga  Kensley is well, she is by the book and strict. Our head executives stated she is good working with the other scientists giving detailed reports on the Tyrants but she is not really social. They wanted someone who could be socially well warm and not  overhyper like Wagner or a school headmaster like  Kensley . So, you came in.”

“I am supposed to communicate with the Tyrants?”  Naia looked at their huge bodies. Some of them noticed her and Nian Zhen. One of them, had a strange intensity to them, despite being  more quieter than the rest. They seemed to be able to talk. Though did not talk much. One or two made a gesture to Nian Zhen. Obviously, they knew him.

“Yeah, they can talk and they usually speak when spoken to. They listen to orders more or less meticulously. The Tyrant R models who were being taught about art were hired to help protect a gallery. Let's just say it did not work out. They destroyed some pieces. Two of them got killed by thieves who got winded on intel that they were there so came somewhat prepared with BOWs of their own, so we know the group wanted to auction those pieces and were part of probably The Connections. The one R model who did come back. Well, he is in the medical unit under observation. There is a lot going on. Many executives were worried because the gallery owner helps fund research as well and he was furious that the Tyrants destroyed some of his valuable assets.”

“What about the Tyrant R model who is in the hospital?”  Naia looked worried, “Will he...die?”

“Maybe worse. They may just kill him. Think he is a waste of resources. Of course, they don't  wanna act inhuman with a writer on the premises working on political public relations but if he does not recover  well they may have to at least mercifully euthanize him.”

“That sounds absolutely  _ horrible _ .”  Naia shuddered. It wasn't The Tyrant's fault he was defeated by anti-BOW weaponry and he did try.

“I know  Naia . But we have to remember something. Most people look at BOWs as they are. BOWs, weapons, useful and efficient weapons. They have banned mostly because of their damage to human populations and being uncontrollable to an extent; only lastly because they can be unethical. They are lucrative and they can replace human combatants.”

She grew sad hearing this. A life just meant to serve the fancies of human interests. It felt like a violation of life itself.

“Well, we do have meals with the Tyrants. You see it's a part of  socialisation . Basically, the Tyrants can be given nutrients via their pods but it is both a social lesson and also cost effective to actually make them  _ eat _ . Wagner has  theorised that eating is one of the best  form of social teaching tools.  Kensley theorised otherwise than it helps create more discipline and control in Tyrants to work in tight or crowded spaces. Like bulls in a china shop as it were. Also, some of the Tyrants are now living in conditions that would look dorms or halls of residences. It is like military training. Some of the psychologists have theorized that self-maintenance for them would be another understanding of basic functions, lack of costs though there  is some problems. Tyrants can get stressed in such conditions. They still need time in their pods. They do not do well in open spaces without a focus to attack. Wagner calls it Bio-Organic Weapon Cognitive Stimulation Stress or BOWCSS, pronounced like BOX. Unlike humans, who can also get unhappy with nothing to do but have  _ adaptive _ measures to cope, BOWs were not fashioned to pass time idly or seemingly without a fixed destructive objective, so they have problems orienting themselves. Yet, for them to be assets to military and other security forces they need some of those basic functions to understand humans and live amongst them.”   
  
“Do you know everything?”  Naia asked, clearly impressed. Overlooking the  awe she felt in having meals with...Tyrants.

“Well, I used to work closely with BOWs.”

“Used to?”

“I am becoming close to a washup.” Nian Zhen laughed a bit, “I have not done anything remotely of use for almost seven months. I know too much so it is hard to terminate my position but there are able enough contenders. I was considered valuable enough. I guess you are here to help me as well to pick up the pace. I did help Wagner and  Kensley with data sets. I am not always in a good mood so I am bad at talking with the Tyrants as well. I now mostly work with the writers especially with the public relations one. Yeah, I know surprising. But she seems to like me enough to work with and the corporation doesn't  wanna jeopardize that at all. Can't say I blame them. And, well, a BSAA agent, Chris Redfield and this professor, Rebecca Chambers, well they trust me to an extent. The corporation find their connections valuable.”

A sadness lingered there and  Naia wondered what happened to him. He seemed passionate enough to have so much knowledge and wisdom. However, what had happened?

“This Tyrant class has been under refinement since 2011. They are loosely called Steel Tyrants.” Nian Zhen continued, not really taking note that  Naia had shown concern over his slight show of sorrow, “They are pretty efficient. Unlike older T-103 models, these guys have certain expressions.  Kensley states that it is good for us to ascertain via body language if a Tyrant comprehends things they are being told. She also  theorises it gives more of an edge if criminals are a bit frightened by the giant Tyrants looking menacing. A sort of psychological tactic. The latter theory may creep anyone out but Dr.  Kensley is thinking like a purpose driven scientist.” He sighed at his own comment,  Naia believed it to be a form of silent criticism as the so-called Cartesian dualities of the rational mind that basic scientific inquiries cherished.

Nian Zhen walked up to the reinforced glass screen. The Tyrants were lining up to take their meals. It was a cafeteria so they were choices  Naia noticed the food was quite food. After all, a well-oiled bio-machine needed to be, well, well-oiled. They were not rich or extravagant but healthy and seemed to part of a Tyrant's balanced diet akin to humans even with more servings. Additionally, the Tyrants took pills as well though  Naia did not know what they were. They seemed like vitamin pills but could also be medicine meant only for Tyrant bodies. Even if their presence was larger than life, meant to intimidate,  Naia had to admit, they were also pretty  _ handsome _ .

That was the correct word without a doubt. Their chiseled jaws, white hot gaze, full enough lips and strong noses were quite attractive. She felt herself blush a bit thinking this:  _ How can I be the only one who thinks this though? _

“Between you and me...” Nian Zhen actually edged a bit closer, making  Naia come out of her thoughts, “I think the Steel Tyrants are a bit  _ hot _ .”

Naia immediately stared at him,  _ Well, nice to know I am not the only one _ .

“What?” Nian Zhen considered the stare, “Everyone thinks it. They just don't  wanna be branded as a freak.” His voice still soft, close to a whisper, dropped a little lower, “You know, “secretly, “At least this is more of the normal side here. I have heard a few guards make some nasty jokes about the Lickers too.”

“No. Actually.” She softly laughed, “I was  kinda thinking the same thing.”

“Nice to see you finally stop being tense though.” Nian Zhen smiled caringly.

“I, uh...” she was caught off-guard, “Well, this seems, ironically, more relaxing.” Despite their rocky start a few hours ago, the rapport was not bad. Dr. Xia Nian Zhen could be funny and friendly. His mood also has calmed down. He seemed less prone to outbursts and agitation. Albeit, still nursing a sadness she could not read.

Nian Zhen went and talked to a guard and approached the glass with the mic attached to it switching on.  “ Steel Tyrants 089, 077, 045, 032; Hypnos Tyrants 022 and 053. You have been invited to have lunch with us. Please come forward.”

Naia looked at one of the  sleeker looking Hypnos Tyrants look very pleased and look  swooningly at Dr. Xia Nian Zhen,  _ Talk about a fanbase _ . The other Hypnos Tyrant looked visibly displeased as if he wanted to just eat lunch by himself. Of the Steel Tyrants,  Naia recognised 089 as the one giving her the gaze before. Something about him didn't read  _ right _ to her. As if he was full of many secrets. She has met a blank or unreadable gaze like this since school-life. Usually by passive aggressive people or secretive people or bullies or all combined. Two of the Tyrants seem to shrug but seemed okay with Nian Zhen. One of them looked... _ shy _ ? Hesitant? He actually attempted to  _ smile _ .  Naia instantly liked that. She felt it was a good sign. \

They all assembled in the line. From ascending order considering the Hypnos Tyrants looked shorter than the Steel Tyrants so they walked first with their trays. Out of all of them, 089, who had responded immediately hearing his name, seemed to move with a lot of calculated steps.

They all sat down on a very large table at the far corner as they walked out of the glass. The Hypnos Tyrants were wearing sleeveless vests and one of them arms seemed to be a darker blue in  colour to their greyish-blue pale body. Their claws were retracted, so they could hold onto their trays and offer greater flexibility.  Naia perceived they were built for strength and also speed. The bored one looked at his food while the other seem to fawn over Nian Zhen. Nian Zhen may have taken the over attention but he did not really react to it. All the way to be professional I guess,  Naia looked at her tray and the food she got. Curry and rice. Like part of her native dishes. The chicken reminded her of food from West Bengal. The  flavours almost made her mouth water and feel how much she wanted to bite into the food. However, she had to also talk to the Steel Tyrants.

_ Food or Friends? The struggle is real _ ...  Naia almost laughed and  stiffled it with a cough.

Nian Zhen took the cough as a way to break the silence. 089 still had his eyes on  Naia and his head had tilted when she coughed. One of the other Tyrants asked, “Are you unwell?”  Naia looked up.

“Oh no. I am just...” his voice was deep, husky yet also soothing and  _ tender _ .  Naia was confused. This was the voice of a Steel Tyrant? The baritone had a lovely lilt on it. She then just figured a Steel Tyrant has just communicated with her! It was a miracle that she was near a Tyrant without being torn apart like a doll but also  _ speaking _ to one.  _ Oh my God...wow _ ... “I. ..I am sorry I am new.”

Nian Zhen smirked at her.  _ Maybe it is strange to  _ _ apologise _ _ to a Tyrant? Most people do look at them as BOWs but he was nice. _

The  white hot gaze of him was warmer. He seemed more like a winter's sun than a flame. 089, however, could puncture holes in someone's skull with a gaze that intense. He did look away though to see his food. The excited Hypnos Tyrant looked at her and then at Nian Zhen again. The other Tyrants just started to eat seeing there was no command not to do so.

“Why don't you guys introduce yourselves?”

Nian Zhen smiled. The Hypnos Tyrant immediately spoke up, “I am 053! I am pretty fun!”  Naia was actually shocked with how friendly he was, “This is 022 and he is a bit of a moody guy.”

“I can introduce myself.” The other Tyrant glared at him, then put aside his utensils,  “ I am Hypnos Tyrant, 022, speed specialist, training to help marines in difficult situations against BOWs in open spaces.”

“I am 045. I usually do guard duty. I like the labs.” Feeling he had to say something after 022's speech.

“I am 032. I have been selected for being a bodyguard to a Blue Umbrella executive. I like the cafeteria. I am glad I am here today. Dr. Xia is pretty fond of us.”

The  white hot gaze turned to her now, regarding, “I am 089. I am a specialty Steel Tyrant being trained to handle large scale BOWs. According to my reports I am doing quite well.”

“I am...” the last person looked a bit shy, even if his face was quite firm, “I guess you know I am 077. I haven't been given any duties yet.” he touched his head as if embarrassed, “Most of the scientists don't think I do as well as I should in the field. Right now, I am just supporting 045 and some of the Umbrella security with hallway patrol.” then added, “You know,” as if uncertain, “Maybe you should start eating soon. I guess you are hungry too, right?” Even with his deep voice, his words were soothing.

“Oh right.”  Naia started eating, “I am  Naia .”   
  
“ Naia what?” 022 spoke, he didn't seem rude and Nian Zhen seemed to allow him to talk most of the way he pleased, again, “I am sorry if that sounded unpleasant. It is just I find the entire names of humans to be fascinating.” 022 was not lying.  Naia saw a glimmer in his eyes. She suddenly caught 089 looking at 022 as if in approval.

“I am  Naia Eve Nazari.”

022 quietly mouthed it again by himself. Closed his eyes for a moment, then looked at her, “That name has a pleasant ring to it. It's, what you humans would call,  _ beautiful _ .”

Naia found herself blushing, “Uh, Thank you so much 022.”

“Your welcome. Should we call you me Miss Nazari?”

“No,  Naia is  fine .”

“Oh, Nian Zhen  let's us call him anything we want too.” 077 actually smiled, “022 is right. You name sounds pretty. It has a meaning, right? I heard human names usually have deep meanings.”

She nodded. 077 looked at her. His eyes were softer than the rest of them. It was hard not to look back and feel comforted. And, did he sense she was hungry? “I guess we can talk about that if you like.”

077 looked a bit  take aback . Did I do the right thing? But then he looked pleased, “I would like that.”  Naia noticed 032 and 045 looked a bit disappointed.

“I mean anyone can talk to me.” She added quickly, aware of the power imbalance this seemed to be, “I feel like everyone should be allowed to approach me. I am the new  behavioural technician or rather like a teacher. I am here for you guys.” It may have sounded strange yet she would have stated the same to students in the community college. With all respects, she was in the similar position in the facility. Whether it seemed strange or it did not was not the issue. An issue which crept up was if the Tyrants found this to be rather peculiar. How would they react? Human students know of teachers or counselors to an extent. Tyrants are tended to as plants or weapons, like machinery, they are given supplements, they are fixed, prodded, checked for abnormalities and also assessed on performances based on a computational chart. They were not surely treated as individuals with  _ rights _ or as  _ people _ .

What she had said had given them a right to _ choose _ . She wondered. If they honed on it. What did Nian Zhen think on it? Did he think the same?  Was his approaches the same?

“And, what will you be teaching us?” 089 looked a bit amused as he said this, eating his mashed potatoes.

“I. ..actually don't know much of that yet.”

Her honesty  seem to surprise all of them. Humans acted arrogant and self-important in front of them. They surely did not show any weakness. The primary weakness was always that Tyrants were physically stronger than humans. They were built to be close to indestructible in the battlefront unless someone did find some way to destroy them. Their lives were to be of service or to die. So, humans used to at least keep their sense of mental 'superiority' and the right to be all that they could in front of them. To see a human do otherwise was not the usual  behaviour .

Nian Zhen ate his food quietly. Observing each of the Tyrants. Gauging them as he knew they gauged him. Though he was not as vulpine as other scientists to only treat them as subjects in an experiment. His reasoning was something else.

“032 what would you like to talk about?”

Naia decided she had to show her enthusiasm to get to know them. 032 seemed taken aback. He had not expected  Naia to talk to any of them at all with any special emphasis, “I...” he faltered,  “ I don't know. I am sorry.” 032 felt ashamed. Humans talk all the time. They make it seem so effortless. Talking was. So difficult. Why do humans talk? Or rather, how have they so much to talk about?

“Don't  apologise .”  Naia felt awful, “It's okay not to know what to talk about.”

“Isn't that easy for you to say.” 022 sounded a bit aggressive. Nian Zhen noticed and so did the others as they all keyed in on him. Nian Zhen was aware that 022 could be moody yet he has not really  seem to be snappy with humans before. He knew 022 could not stand him at times. Yet, he maintained a sense of decorum or rudimentary protocol to be polite to someone considered a leader or a superior. Suddenly, it occurred to him that 022's lack of restraint towards  Naia could be useful and interesting. “Humans have many things to talk about. You have things in your lives to talk about. What do we have that we can essentially talk about? From what I know, we are eating, it would be severely impolite to just talk about murdering Lickers and Hunters and all of that in front of a meal. I don't think it would help my appetite too. So, either than that I don't really know what you may be interested in.”

“Hey,”  Naia had been a bit confused at his sudden annoyance but she understood him, “You don't have to stay here and talk to me, you do know that, right?”

Everyone listened to her, 022 looked wide-eyed, “What?”

“Yes. I mean it to all of you. If you find anything boring you can leave. I mean I wish to talk to you as...I would anyone else. And, I need to treat you as anyone else I am talking with.” She had wanted to say equal but would that mean anything to them? The word 'equal' would sound cruel to them. Do BOWs consider humans as equals? If not masters maybe tolerable nuisances? She had  realised a question had formulated due to her resistance to use a word, which for all intents and purposes, would have an ambiguity here that could be taken easily as insult and not as a compliment.

022 looked shocked, “I don't...” everyone looked at him, “Wish to leave. I just don't know anything about me that would be interesting to you.” 022 looked utterly embarrassed now. Was it easy for Tyrants to look embarrassed?

“I never tell them they can leave you know.” Nian Zhen winked at all of them and  Naia , “It's because I am a scientist here and the guards may think they are being cooperative. You, on the other hand, have a bit more leeway than me here.”

053 huffed, “I can't quiet any longer!” he declared making 089 and 077 eye him, “You always seem to be in a bad mood and living with you in the same quarters is tiresome enough” He folded his arms.

“Stop being a sourpuss.” 077 smiled at 022, “I am sure you want to talk to  Naia . After all, we all are interested in female humans because most Tyrants look more similar to male humans. It is interesting to talk to female humans. Some of them seem a bit scared of us or don't talk to us much. Well neither do the male humans aside Nian Zhen...but uh...” he looked questionably at Nian Zhen, “Well, he hasn't been talking much lately so I been bored. And, I am sure that talking with you would be fun.”

“Sour puss?”  Naia looked interested at 077.

“Yeah, I learned the word means to be 'moody' right? We have been learning a lot of words for the last three years with Dr. Wagner and Dr.  Kensley . We also been genetically programmed to understand language so we can pick up some words faster than others.” 077 seemed super excited,  Naia found his energy infectious, inspiring, even is 053 also seem hyperactive 077 seemed very genuine and more outspoken than all of them. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw 089 looking at her still. “I am happy! I hardly get to use many words and stuff. Like I mean, 089 is quiet and like 032 and 045 are not moody. We do live in the same quarters.”   
  
“What about you?”  Naia asked. Nian Zhen gave a clandestine smile.

“I don't know. I can also be  kinda quiet too. But it is great to meet new people and it is nice to meet you  Naia .” 077 suddenly got still and rubbed his hand on his head.

Naia noticed that 089 still occasionally looked at her. She did not know why. He did not seem to look at anyone else. Was it because she was new? Or, was there something else?

“Are you quiet 089?”

“It depends on the company.”  _ Wow, that's a great answer _ , “I mean there isn't much to talk to other Steel Tyrants about if they do not wish to talk about training and their preferred job assignments. Nian Zhen has not talked to us in a while. Dr. Byron only recently talked to me about a field test I have coming up. Dr. Gresham made a comment about how failure would not easily be tolerated. It is the usual fare of things exchanged. I am interested to know what you have planned being a teacher.” 089 smirked as he said this.  Naia wondered if he usually was the smirking type. Nian Zhen seemed to observe this too. So, she had to assume he did not freely give out expressions as such.

“Have you always been a teacher?” 077 smiled and spoke, “I mean I know you were a child before. Humans have things called  childhoods right? That sounds cool. We don't have childhoods so I know I am always wondering about the child thing. And, like I know humans change job assignments. That must be super cool too. So, like have you always been a teacher?”

“Uh, very recently yes.”  Naia smiled, “I like teaching.”

“What did you teach to other humans?” 053 asked.

“Psychology.”  Naia answered.

022 perked up, “I heard that is a fascinating subject.”

“So, is it only psychology of other humans?” 045 asked.

“Uh, yeah.”  Naia looked at his puzzled face.

“Does that help?” 045 asked again, curious, “I mean, I heard about psychology from Dr. Wagner but I didn't get much about it. It feels strange. Tyrants may also attack other humans so if people know other people's psychology, does it mean it can't really be helped? So, we still need to attack them?”

_ Such a good question _ . Before she could say anything 089 spoke, “It is like fighting other BOWs. You may know what they are like but that doesn't stop them from I guess being in the place of battle with you.”

Nian Zhen looked impressed.  Naia was too as that seemed like a great answer, “Yeah. That's true.” She was excited now, they could be having a good discussion, “There are many branches of psychology and I was mostly involved with cognitive psychology.”

“So that means you know something about  criminals right?” 022 was engaged, “Humans call criminals people who commit a crime. Of course, not all criminals need to be handled by us. Does it bother humans to know about criminals and crime?”

“I am sure it does.” 077 joined in. They all looked at him, “Doing a crime seems to be a horrible thing. It may make other humans and even the humans themselves unhappy. Crime is well something bad, right? Maybe even unforgivable.” 077 looked down as if thinking then looked up again, “I am sure crimes can be terrible.”

“You are right both of you I mean this is getting really cool.”  Naia was really happy they seemed to have so much to talk about.

“I mean, criminals seem kind of strange to me. I don't always like to think about them” 032 finally spoke and  Naia was relieved as he had been quiet, “I rather do my job then ask a lot about them” He seemed to be thinking something deeply and look at 022 in a manner of annoyance and seem to refer to him next, “We wouldn't be able to do our assignments if we think too much on how criminals and humankind work hand in hand.”  Naia took it as 032's chastisement to 022.

“You know,” 022 looked annoyed as well, “If you think about it some humans may consider _ us _ criminals as well.”

“I am not a criminal. I am a BOW. There is a difference.” 032 stated said with pride and challenged 022 with his eyes.

Naia and Nien Zhen looked at each other. Hoping the conversation did not go sour.

“Humans can be so different! It's amazing! I think it's because they have childhoods.” It was if 077 knew there was a tension and he cut through it with his easy  demeanour .  Naia was thankful he did and she smiled at him.

“We don't have childhoods. I say we can be different.” 089 looked down and then up again, “I really don't care who is a criminal or not because I am pretty sure as a BOW whether I am good or not has no bearing.” 089 looked at Nian Zhen and  Naia as he spoke this.

Nian Zhen seemed a bit dumbfounded at this reply.  Naia tilted her head. “Well, if you think about  it I am sure human soldiers and security guards also have the same dilemma. So, we can't be alone.” 077 smiled a bit, “I mean I am sure for them being good is also doing a good job, right? I mean, that's not only a BOW problem.”

Naia found herself increasingly liking 077 responses. He seemed to take some time in saying them. Though 089 was not completely wrong. He also seemed to be very calculative and observant. She was sure Nian Zhen knew about this. Though why did he make her feel, _ eerie _ ? Not bad. Yet, it was something she could not quite place.

“So, what about _ love _ ?”

“What about it?”

Nian Zhen looked at 053 when he asked that question. “I didn't ask you I asked  Naia .”

“You ask everyone that.” Nian Zhen chuckled.

“Please Dr. Byron scoffed at me, Dr. Gresham told me to shut it and Dr.  Kensley looked horrified.” Then he sulkily added, “Dr. Wagner talked too much. I did not ask her about her past romances in such detail. I mean not that I fully minded. But she was too excited.”

“That's what you get when you ask Dr. Wagner about her life. Always talking about people who got away.” Nian Zhen laughed a bit.

“Well, last time she started talking about this man she was with named  Oswell Spencer and she complained a lot about him. I found she is a bit too...well, I don't know.” 053 stared at them, “I mean this Spencer man seemed to have a lot of issues.”

“I believe he was once of the directors and founders of the Umbrella corporation.”

Everyone looked at 089 as he seemed to be finishing up his food, “I suppose any sort of relationship with a man like that would be complicated.”

“Yeah, I thought I heard the name before myself.” 032 replied, curious, “I did not know you knew.”

“Was he someone close to another person named Albert  Wesker ?” 077 questioned, “I sometimes hear the name  Wesker too. I guess people like that could be complicated. Or, they just don't really say what they are thinking.” 077 actually chuckled a bit.

_ 089 and 077 seemed to be quite intuitive _ ,  Naia was amazed that 089 could casually talk about  a important man like Spencer. Then  realising something and staring at Nian Zhen, “So Dr. Wagner also has him an ex?”

Nian Zhen laughed, “Oh you and 053 will get along well.” Then in a serious note, “Well, she does mention him a lot in certain situations. Complains how she is making Blue Umbrella try to rectify all his dirty work and so on and so forth.”

Naia looked at the corner of her eye and saw 089 looking closely at her and Nian Zhen as they talked about  Wesker and Spencer. She wondered if he knew more than he let on. If he did, well, she had to commend him, right? Wasn't it considered good to not let all your cards on the table? She didn't know. This was tricky. She did find it a bit off though. There could be a thin line between tolerable mysteriousness and unfathomable secrecy. She still could not place where he was in.

077 seemed a bit, well, like _ her _ . If it could be said. He seemed unsure but also direct and he was observing as well. She noticed he had looked at her several times as the others. His gaze lingered on her face. On her eyes. On her nose. On...her lips. What was he thinking? He looked at her when she had talked. Her mouth. Yet, unlike with 089, she did not feel his stare was porous or strange. He didn't seem to be scaling her words in an awkward manner. He was in the moment like her.

The question of them being criminals had also lingered to an extent. She noticed 032 hardly looked at 022 and if their eyes met by chance 032 scoffed at him and 022 gave an angry stare. It seemed bad blood had  grew between them. She felt slight responsible. She did not know the Tyrants would disagree. She felt bad even if their disagreement would not necessary be a bad thing for social learning. In kindergarten you are taught you should all get along. What that had meant was despite  _ not  _ getting along you should _ try  _ to get along for social harmony. Disagreements do happen though. Hadn't she been taken away by Nian Zhen when they met just a few hours ago?

Naia smiled to herself. She may have to make them sort it out themselves. She has to trust them. It was also a part of respect.

“What is funny?” 077 asked her though  Naia saw that 089, as usual, was also looking at her.

“Oh no. I think our conversation is fun. I am happy.” They had been talking about their last few days. 053 was all about how Nian Zhen had not come to  vist them and asked if he had been sick. Nian Zhen just shrugged putting 053 in a sad mood until  Naia stated she had found him drunk. Nian Zhen did not  appeciate this but he did not seem to stare at her with complete chastisement. She gave a sign of apology. 053 had an opposite effect telling  Naia maybe she should have said that but happy she did. 053 then proceeded to ask if alcohol was quite addictive and if it was like 'love.' Nian Zhen genuinely laughed at this confusing 053 and Nian Zhen earnestly  apologised to all of them. He was sick and the bottle was a symbol of it. The Tyrants seemed a bit confused but they did  knew that drinking in heavy quantities was apparently bad for humans. It was forbidden for Tyrants to drink anyways. They were BOWs not people in the ordinary sense. Also, getting drunk could mean they could damage and so that had to be taken into account. Tyrants could only drink in a certain situation and even  then not above a certain quality. Nian Zhen's apology got a nod of 089 as he kept a respectful silence. 077 inquired if he was doing okay. They seemed to be  witholding some information.  Naia got this when all the other Tyrants aside 089 looked at each other in a questioning manner. So, Nian Zhen had a few secrets and the Tyrants knew and she didn't as of yet. She had to give it time.

Out of all of them 053 was the most talkative, then 077, 022 wanted to talk to her more but he seemed hesitant. 077 was also shy and seemed to hold back some statements. 032 asked about how  Naia is liking her first day and 045, with a pause,  boldy asked if she had a mate.  Naia said “no.” 053 looked crestfallen. “That sucks, having a mate seems so fun. Or, what do you humans call it, spouse,  boyfriend , girlfriend, right?”

“Humans have a lot of different names for mates. Is it like evolution?” 045 casually asked and Nian Zhen coughed as he almost spit out water, “Like how we mutate into other forms, our super forms? Is it something like that but with other members of your species? I don't know why humans need so many names for mates.”

“Well, having many mates mean you need to identify them. Humans like identification and all of that.” 053 chirped, “I find it useful too.”

“It's actually unbelievable you don't have a mate.” 022 gave her a look, “You are quite pretty.” Nian Zhen blushed with her, “I mean, I think you are aesthetically pleasing.”

“Yeah, that's true!” 053 nodded, “I bet everyone here thinks so!”

All the Steel Tyrants looked elsewhere. Nian Zhen smiled at her.  Naia looked down in complete embarrassment.  _ Tyrants find me attractive. What? This was quite incredibly confusing. Do they even know what they are saying? _ She looked desperately at Nian Zhen who was just smiling and drinking tea and gave her a knowing sort of look.  _ What? Don't give me that look! Do all of them think that?! _

“So, all you Steel or Elite Tyrants, Hypnos Tyrants, find  Naia pretty, right?” Nian Zhen asked drinking the tea.

“ Awww Naia is so cute! I like you  Naia ! Your eyes sparkle when you talk!” 053 affectionately stated though he keenly gazed at Nian Zhen.

“Anybody would be dumb to state otherwise.” 022 did not look at her, he observed his finished plate and just played with his utensils.

“Well, you have nice eyes...” 032 blurted out and immediately looked at his own hand.

“Your eyes do light up when you talk and you are very friendly.” 045 smiled, “I like friendly humans.”

089 smiled a bit, thin but similarly calculative, “Well, it would be rude not to call a beautiful female human, beautiful, I feel the it is what would you say? Social etiquette.”

077 looked away, rubbed his head, “Yeah, what he said.”

Naia just looked down and blushed deeply.  _ What is going on?  _ Then she glared at Nian Zhen,  _ Thanks for putting me on the spot! Why did you ask them to clarify?! _

A security guard came and talked to Nian Zhen. “Well,” he stated quietly, “I guess it is time for us to leave. We been here long enough.”

The Tyrants all waved goodbye and walked out in an orderly line. They passed the glass barrier and seemed to be moving into their quarters.  Naia still feel 089's presence and turned out to noticed he had watched her by the side. 077 waved again.  Naia smiled and waved back.

“Did you have to ask them that question?”

“You know. They don't usually unanimously like someone. When Yvonne Byron came in only 053, 032 and 045 swooned at her. 089 gave her short of a flying fuck and 077 looked nervous. 022 looked straight at her and Byron told him to stop staring and it was rude. She was not friendly and she hardly wants to talks to them. She even told 053 that he was too casual around her and to address her properly. Afterwards, 053 told me he wanted to avoid Byron if he could as she was pretty much a witch to him. 089 pardoned himself if he could  saying she bored him. Of course, I would not say this to Byron. 077 hardly talks to her but Byron gets agitated if he does not pay attention. She told me he seems adequate enough.”

“Why are we talking about her?”

“ Naia , c'mon, you noticed right? She is one of the most desired women here. Some men and women even crudely go to say she is the most fuckable person here.”  Naia blushed as Nian Zhen talked casually, walking down the halls and acting it didn't matter, “You would think Tyrants who are fascinated by female humans would like her. Well, I like them because it's nice to know they are not a bunch of walking erections. I mean 053 well, I guess he doesn't like women all that much, he liked Byron  'cause she was pretty but then her attitude didn't seal the deal. But none of them liked her. It was funny. Many Tyrants did look at her. She is gorgeous no doubt. But many don't  wanna stay with her for long. Some get nervous, some get scared, only 089 mentioned boredom and 077 told me he finds her, I shall not forget, 'unkind' – those were his words. He specifically called her unkind. So, I am very glad. They found you well, you are better than Byron. And, that may not make it easy for you. Even if she doesn't give a rat's ass for Tyrants to know they prefer  _ you _ over  _ her  _ would be enough to make her despise you. She is quite good at hiding those things.”

“You seem to have a lot of observations about her.”  Naia tread carefully, “Is it okay? I mean, I am under her in the hierarchy.”

“Look, dude,” he laughed and smiled at her, “I am telling you this because of it. I never really liked her much. She is a good colleague like Gresham but we three never saw eye to eye. Gresham and Byron have their own tastes. I have mine. And, if you are working with me I rather have you on Xia Nian Zhen team. By the way, my English name is Noelle. I mean, some people still call me Noelle here. Gresham loves to call me Nian Zhen to show familiarity but we are not at all good friends. Maybe there was a time. I am wiser now.”

Naia saw him turn bitter, “Gresham is a bit...” she searched a word, “Well, he is a bit...”

“You mean sadistic. Yeah, he is. When we first  met he was nice for the sake of it. He always reminded everyone he was top dog. His family knew Spencer's family. He has a lot of connections. Byron is Byron. She never talked much about her life before. Sometimes we forget she has a life without Umbrella. Though she hardly steps out. Among the head scientists here the names Byron and Gresham go a long way.”

“I am sure Xia does as well.” she smiled.

“Not so much anymore.”   
  
“Do you  wanna talk about it?”   
  
“And spoil  future interactions?” he winked.

She smiled.

The hallways had an unearthly sort of glow. She wondered how the lights were causing the effects and  realised it was the tree. Dusk was brewing outside. It's wide array of pinks, reds and violets  trapizing on the deep blue changing from its lighter shade. Clouds became stretched lines as they too seem one with the horizon, like a naked body edging to sleep or pleasure or both. She looked fascinated at the windows. Long and filled with the same impenetrable glass she had seen in the cafeteria. She now took note. No one could easily smash the frame. She wondered if it was to deter interlopers or to also enclose them all in a cocoon of the facility's making.  Gerichtslinde hummed in the dusk. It's spores all lighting up as lanterns to illuminate the bridge.

The Ivy Zombies seem to stop too as if they are all breathing in with their maternal host. Soon, some scattered inside her bark while others tended the surrounding roots and grass. They had talked for long and the light came down early.

“I need to check into my room.”  Naia realised she had no chance to see where she was supposed to stay.

“A perk you may have working in the Tyrion labs is your room is going to be very well furnished. This may make other scientists have some disdain for you. But I think you need the space. But most of the scientists here live in luxury anyways. They have decided this as many do not go outside. It's just working in Tyrion labs means you directly work for Byron and Gresham.”

“Yeah,” she sighed, “I heard that was a coveted position.”

“Well, you must be tired. But if you  want we can have dinner together. But maybe not the cafeteria. And, no it is not a date. I just  wanna eat at one of the smaller lounges. I don't like to interact with a lot of people these days.” Nian Zhen smiled at her.

Naia realised he would not have easily invited anyone else; his eyes looked lonely and she could also use the company, “Sure. I  wanna have dinner with you.”

“Good, we have an interlinked intercom system. You can call my room it is 610.” Nian Zhen shook her hand and walked away.

Naia watched him and then called out, “Thank you!” he turned around, “For today. I learned a lot.” Nian Zhen smiled and nodded.

Naia felt tired already as she looked around and saw a sign that led to a receptionist's desk. She wanted to ask them about her quarters. As she approached them, she saw a brunette man with what could be defined as luscious locks talking to one of the  woman . At one moment, he looked agitated, “I asked for Gresham yesterday.”

“I am sorry Mr. Kennedy but he was busy with the new recruits. I know you are a friend of Professor Chambers.”

“Yeah, It's late now.” He was wearing blue jeans, sturdy brown boots and a brown jacket with a dark vest inside, he was athletic, he was very attractive, “I mean. If he doesn't meet me today. I  gotta ride back.”

“Actually, Mr. Kennedy, Dr. Gresham has arranged for you to stay. You are to stay in the 7 th floor in one of suites. He  apologised profusely. But he has asked us to help you orient yourself in the facility.”

The man sighed, “Okay. Sure.”

She approached the desk. Waited. The man looked at her and walked on the other side. “Yes?” The lady asked her.   
  
“I came in today. I am not sure...”

“Oh, you are somewhat late. Miss Nazari, right? You are on the 4 th floor.” She handed her a key, “Your luggage is in your room. We have a manual and a map of the locations of the facility. Please call us. Our reception desk is open 24 hours especially for people who work in the Tyrion labs. The elevators are to your right.”

Naia started walking and Leon also walked with her having obtained his key. They got into the elevator. He punched in the fourth floor for her. The elevator moved but it was taking time. The elevator itself was made of wood and had a pink potted plant inside. Like a miniature Cherry Blossom.  Naia wondered if it was made in the labs too and concluded it could be as though she was not a botanical expert the plant looked like a cross between a Cherry Blossom and a hibiscus.

“That thing gives me the creeps.”

Her reverie interrupted when she heard Leon's deep voice, he saw her observing the plant. “I don't know why it's in the damn lift.” Leon snorted.

“Yeah, I don't know. It seems...well, inimical to the facility's way of life.”

“Really?” he smirked, “Do you know?”

“Not really. I am just guessing.”

“You are a new recruit?”

She nodded.

“Leon Kennedy.” she shook his hand, “ Naia Nazari.”

“You don't look like a scientist pardon my deduction.”

“I am not. I am like a teacher.”

“A teacher?”

“Yeah.”

The floor came. “Well, uh, this is me.”

“Funny, I guess the lift was slower. Or, they have long partitions in the residential block.” Leon looked at her hallway.

“I guess...See you later Mr.”

“It's Leon.” he smiled, “Good night  Naia .”

“Yeah goodnight Leon.”

And, she walked out.

She saw her room was 401. The one right at the end of a hallway that looked like a four-star hotel. She was walking but the floor seemed large and quiet. She felt a bit concerned as she rounded a corner looking at the door numbers. There were a lot of space between rooms. She looked ahead and saw a larger hallway. She carefully walked forward. Why do I have a feeling someone is watching me? And, it's not the security cameras? She looked at the ornate glass windows she passed.

Suddenly she saw someone was sitting on one of the window spaces. She wanted to yell but instead a step back. It was a girl, or rather thin young woman, with black hair, blue eyes, she was wearing a black miniskirt, netted stockings, boots and a black and red leather jacket, “You are late.” She spoke as she stepped down.

“Excuse me?”

“Well, nice to meet you. In this end of the hallway it's you and me.” she smiled, “I am Eveline by the way.”

“I am  Naia .”

“I know.”

“Huh?”

Eveline just opened the door, “I hope we get along. You seem nice.” And she closed the door behind her.

Naia looked at her receding form a clock striking an hour startled her and she was all alone in the hallway.

-


	2. Time And Place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter has NSFW content and is very Jill/Nemesis centric. Enjoy guys!

**Time and Place**

When _ It _ or _ He _ had cornered her the delicious feeling of triumph ran through; faster than adrenalin and wetter than blood in his core. Was this success? Was he not simply a ‘ prototype'? If he had succeeded  surely he would be more valuable...right?

This  _ human _ . This  _ female _ . This  _ woman _ . 

She had shredded him, shot him, hurt him, burned him, scarred him and. ..she had  _ exasperated _ him more than anything in his short existence. The undead fell beneath his powerful hands and feet. Even Lickers feared him. Sensed him as a more aggressive being. Other mutants like Hunters ran away from him. 

BUT THIS WOMAN. 

She defied his inherent strength, aggression, speed and agility as if he was a “creepy, ass stalker.” Nothing more. Maybe less. 

This infuriated him. 

He wanted her to feel pain. Slowly. Inevitably. He  wwanted her to hurt as much as she had hurt him...

His rage...his frustrations...He bellowed out all he could say “S.T.A.R.S!”

Angered. All he could communicate was this one syllable. Either in seeming triumph or anger. Nothing else. While she spat at him with words filled with coldness, contempt and fury as easily — with her defiant tongue; coiled and ready, slippery and dangerous as his tentacles with her  words.

Only for a moment, there was fear in her eyes, as she surveyed the room, had nowhere else to go...the books all quiet witnesses to her seeming demise. She then glared at him. Fucking  _ dared _ to glare. “C’mon buddy.” she smirked, taunting, “Do your worst.” With that malice added, that sense of mocking, “If you can.”

And in a moment, he broke the damn  study table to splinters in rage and she dived away from the sharp wood debris. He lashed out with his tentacles as a challenge to her flexibility. Her silky muscles of a flexibility. She dodged that too. He lashed again and she tripped half on it and she was about to dash up and he used his huge hand to pin her down to the floor. 

In response, her boot connected to his face making him roar in anger and grab her face more and she spat at him making him growl and hiss at her with his sharp teeth. “You fucker! I am  gonna kill you!” he actually chuckled because he had her pinned down. She aimed her gun at him. She shot and he for once dodged and used his other hand to grab it and throw it away and then he pinned her arms. She yelled and screamed, “Fuck you!  You stupid ass motherfucker!” 

She struggled and he enjoyed watching her squirm for a bit. But then she started kicking his face. And he actually had to admit they had some force, “Stupid motherfucker! Stupid motherfucker!” he growled but didn’t really stop her from kicking him. 

After five minutes, she seemed to stop only to want to  _ bite _ his face. Her reaction actually  _ frightened _ him. Also, _ intrigued  _ him. Such ferocity. Even pinned down. Never wanting to give up. 

“Do it bastard.” she challenged, “You fucking kill me now. I am not  gonna beg. You are nothing but a stupid monster.” There were tears out her eyes now, “What do you care? Kill me now.”

It was his design. He should end her. She was here and that means he could end her. She saw her kick his head and it disoriented him for a bit and she squirmed again. She reached for her knife. Well, nice to know. 

He slapped it away. She had managed to get an arm half out but he pinned it again. He saw her tears. He saw her under him.

His thumb touched her eyes. Those tears. Things humans easily could make. Her face. It was a bit dirty. But her skin was not mottled like his. So soft. So smooth. He saw her chest. She had those things that female humans had. They looked nice when she breathed in and out. 

“What are you...” She was looking somewhat afraid. 

He rubbed her face again. He brought his own closer. “S.T.A.R.S.” it was soft growl. Then he attempted, it hurt, he did not have good vocal  chords . “ Jillll ” a trill.

She looked scared, “You know my name...?”

He let her go. 

She got up. She rubbed her arms. Looked at him. He looked at her slender but taut body, cool blue eyes, perfect nose (not crooked like his nor as long; quaint), silky short hair that also felt nice to the touch. Her chest and her waist and legs in those pants. 

He felt something inside himself. Something that he felt was closer to his instincts than carnage. 

“Why did you let me go?”

He tilted his head. He wasn’t sure. He actually didn’t like seeing her feeling sad and crying. 

“Why...?” 

And, he put his tentacles on her body. Exploring her chest, her legs, through her clothes...” Hey...” she stated softly. Surprised but not panicked.

He rubbed a tentacle a bit forcefully on the area between her legs. “ Oh.. ” she called out. A noise he had not encountered before. It did not seem like pain. It thrilled him. “Hey Buddy...I...” she was talking and in the midst of it he went and licked her right cheek. Her scent and taste entangled on her skin. Something stirred. Something  down him. It was amassing blood and a rush fast. 

He trembled. 

His hands instantly went to her face and he cupped her face and licked her cheeks. Her nose. Her lips. Lips he wanted but did not have. She opened her mouth and the tip of his long enough tongue brushed against hers. She shivered. He shivered. He put it inside her mouth twirling it around. She didn’t tell him to stop. He did. He knew this may be awkward for her. She looked red. Out of  breath . She was flushing and her eyes were a bit heavy. 

He went and touched her chest mounds throw her tank top. “ Ahhhh ...” she moaned out. Making him stop. Hoping it was not aggressive action. She bit her lip. In a way, he did not see her do when she was battling him. He did the touching again slowly, softly squeezing and she sighed and her tilted back and she was looking at him and then not. 

Biting her lips. Closing her eyes. 

He decided to take the thing off. Usually he ripped things but he decided not to at this time. He slowly pulled on it. She did lift her arms and he pulled it off and the lighter white tank underneath. Or was it, what humans called an undergarment? His pants were designed to hold all his stuff in place. Humans seemed to wear extra layers. His clothes helped him keep his form in check more or less and somewhat blend in if he could blend in. After all, he was not the regular mutation. He was a specialised BOW.

Her chest mounds were now free. What were they called again? _ Breasts _ . He looked at them. They had some tippy like thing on them that were an appendage of sorts. He softly touched them. She shivered. Was she cold? He touched them again and saw them change. As if stimulated. He rubbed them softly and she began to moan again. 

She actually had her arms on his now. She was breathing deep, shivering, “This is  gonna kill me in another way.” She started laughing quietly but not in an insulting way. He understood language. Yet, he was not designed for communication. Mostly, his speech was limited. He could mimic his operational protocols as in STARS and that was it for most of it. Hearing her talk _ fascinated _ him. The expressions, the lint and tilt of the words around the tongue he had  _ kissed _ . Yes, there was this whole other world in her and he was deeply intrigued by it. 

He tongued her mouth again. This time she responded. He did not know why. She should have been bitter but he was glad she was reciprocating and seemingly wanting him. The thought made him freeze for a moment. She  _ wanted _ him. And, that was it.

He realised how fucking good it was to be  _ wanted _ . Wanted by  _ her _ . He wanted her to want him. Like this. He wanted to be more than just someone who was chasing her. He  _ wanted _ her. He wanted her first. And if she responded. There was a thrill there he had not experienced before. Something a deeper shade than triumph. 

Is  it what humans called happiness? Was it pride? Both? Perhaps. Yes.

He brushed her hair and her face, slowly fondled her breasts again, “Jill.” he spoke a bit clearly now. 

Jill breathed in. “Nemesis.” So, she knew him. Knew his name. He loved it upon her tongue. 

“Jill.”

“Nemesis.”

He started using his tongue on her breasts and she moaned harder. He used his tentacles to squeeze them and also rub against her pants. She seemed to like that as she moaned, grabbed his arms and bit her lips. Nemesis felt an urgency in him. He started to disrobe. He knew his flesh was not pretty as hers but he had to get all this tape like gear off his fucking body. The pants. The boots. Everything. 

His size was impressive. It was half standing on attention. 

He saw it and realised that primal need. He was attracted to Jill Valentine. Pure and Simple. He wanted to mate with her. Fuck her. And, as humans say, make fucking deep love with her. 

This need had overwritten the remote directives to kill. All those functions halted. The signals shattered as glass. He was now free from that thing hounding his brain. Now, he had his own thoughts and desires. Not of them was to maim or kill. But to touch, caress and get all pleasure and give all pleasure. The humans who made him may want Jill dead. Well, fuck them. He wanted Jill alive and writhing with him. 

This feeling should have been excluded from him. It would be considered a fatal flaw in his design. This was why it hurt the scientists — Bio Organic Weapons were still as  _ biological  _ as them. One could not excise it without lack of performance. To be a male BOW meant he would have those desires they have attempted to block out. The desires that would make him akin to animals and humans — akin to  _ life _ . 

He would celebrate it. He had found the person, the suitable being he wished to be under and over. To be mastered by without slavery. To taste freedom within the walls of the body. Things may seem liminal but he realised now how they were not. She was to be his as he was utterly hers. 

Stars. The word itself was imprinted on him like the maps of Raccoon City. Yet, once the word was so limited. Now, she had opened the galaxies in there. 

As he undressed, she had looked. She looked surprised, hesitant as him, could he blame her? Here in this quiet room in a ravaged necropolis he was a nude BOW in front of his once target to murder. Nothing was stranger. No fictions would hold precedent and no truth less sweet. Their lusts ripened under the heat of the room, fires burned somewhere nearby, only a cool air came in through a crack in the window and some broken glass. 

He noticed then the wound in her abdomen, A purplish-red angry lash. He was ashamed. He knew most of the wounds on her body was given to him by her. He did not care she had hurt him. He drew first blood. Anyone would wish to protect themselves. Did he not raise a hand to cover from her shots to the device at his chest? Even though he was supposed to be impregnable? He saw her cuts and scars. A wounded person who still looked lovely. Wounds would make him  uglier . So, he marvelled at her flesh’s ability to retain her beauty. Both envious and lured in. 

She had taken off her pants and boots. She had decided. 

He approached palming her wounds and she sighed. A breath hitched with some pain he recognised. He licked her abdomen, pressed his tongue there softly, licking her pain and saw her shiver and close her eyes. He nibbled and sucked with gums as he had no lips as much as he could manage to suck. The tentacles helped as he had no lips. They were softer and could be softened and she cried out for the  stimulation . 

His tongue trailed down. He lowered himself. The beast knelt in front of the beauty. He licked at her sweet little slit. He knew what that was. His penis twitched in utter excitement. Jill trembled. She looked a bit scared. After all, this was quite scary. He caressed her face as assurance. Part her legs and his tongue liberally lapped up. White substances were secreted. An evidence of stimulation. She tilted her head back and moaned and cried; grabbing his head, nails sweetly scratching his flesh. An evidence of desire. “Fuck....Oh, God...Yeah...Yeah...I need this...” 

Her encouragement he was to obey. He kept on lapping until she cried out and a climax was reached. She was sweaty and breathing with eyes hooded. 

His own fluids were leaking. He was more than ready. He looked at her for permission. She gave a sign to comply. It took a bit of effort but as he melded flesh with her— nothing prepared him and he roared out louder than anything. No pain to the flesh. No laceration. No gunfire or explosion would prepare him from the electric current on his spine. The sweet movement of his hips in concert with hers. The sweat that he also had increasing. His flesh not merely a tapestry of pain and engineered torment. Now it moved as it had reached beyond the  arrogance of his designers and to the natures they could never control. 

He growled and roared. She moaned and cried and growled and cursed and clutch to him. Her sweet vagina clutched his dick making him want her do that ad infinitum. He embraced her and got her closed. His tongue went in and out of her mouth and she moved her tongue. Their kissing seemed impossible or shallow yet it was fevered and strong. The depth there was curdling passion, dedication, things that seem incomprehensible but existing. They were out to destroy one another. Now, they were honed in for shared survival and pleasure. They needed this. He needed her. Pure and simple. If he was merely a weapon, he wanted this one action to show to the bastards he had lived.

That he was  _ loving _ Jill Valentine. 

She screamed and arched her back as she was sat on him and he roared clutching her as they both came together. 

“Jill...” he muttered a few moments later when her eyes opened again. She had held onto him and he had kept her in her arms. He looked at her.

“Jill...” The affection there. 

“Nemesis.” she smiled. She kissed his mottled cheek.

“Jill.” one tear ran down his single eye. 

When Nemesis woke up, he saw he had ruined his hospital gown. The dreams were stronger now. The personnel who cleaned him saw he drifted in and out so they did not care about his waste matter or his erectile emissions. Yet, this time he had seen a dream so vivid. He had sensed her. Jill was here. Wherever here was. He knew this was a new place. He was tired. He heard about being in a coma. Of struggling to live. Of being merely a tissue for several years in some glass jar comatose state more or less for the last 15 years. They wanted to use his tissues and see what they could learn from his healing brain. It took time. They invested because he may be of some use to the next generation of Tyrants.

Yet he knew.

He was obsolete to them. A prototype which more or less failed. 

After data was extracted and information made sustainable, he would be eradicated. The word ‘euthanise’ was too kind for a weapon like him. To them, he was a thing. Though they now interchangeably called him ‘they’, ‘it’ and ‘him.’ Some even insisted on the personalised pronouns. He wondered if this was a slight change with the humans. 

He wondered what Jill was doing. 

He had felt her presence. He had even heard her name being spoken about.

Had Jill wanted to meet him? 

She still held animosity towards him. He heard that. 

He wanted to feel glad she remembered him but...he wanted to know. He was sure after a while they didn’t want him to attack her.

He had apparently had what humans called “panic attack” that made his heart go wild. Unknown to them, he was just not keen in hurting Jill. He didn’t wish to be ordered to hurt Jill. 

He wondered what Jill looked like now. In his dreams, she was unchanged.

And, he was beginning to hate that.

He wanted the context to change. He wanted to see the reality of her. 

He wanted to be more than the creepy stalker screaming that one word “S.T.A.R.S” at her. 

He wanted to be.

With her. 

That was what he wanted. 

Jill woke up in a sweat.  _ Shit _ . She was having a dream. It had not been a bad one. Yet at one point, she felt she was running and tumbling down a hill and so the effect woke her up. The bedside clock read 7pm.  _ Wait, did I doze off? _ She got up and saw she was still wearing her clothes. Old habits. She was so used to feeling exhausted and falling asleep as she was once STARS. And, as a BSAA agent. Her entire life had been  work .  _ God, I am like in closing in on my 40s now. Been doing this for more than a lifetime _ . 

Now and then, she remembered Raccoon City. It felt surreal to her at times. How a city she lived and worked in was destroyed overnight by a missile strike. She and Carlos escaping. One of the few who made it out alive. The tragedy is still talked about today. The ruins of the city are protected by the  government and people have memorials nearby. It felt strange. She once lived in a place which was now basically a crypt sort of museum of old relics, bones, zombie limbs and debris. 

When she had seen the flowers and offerings, the pictures of some people she had known, she had cried. So many people lost loved ones, not only her and now that Umbrella was held responsible for this act of domestic  terrorism, she knew she had at least done some of her mission. Yet, Blue Umbrella had risen up. She gauged their intentions as ambiguous even if they wanted to seemingly repent for past sins and crimes. Yet she was not a pastor and neither was her job was to absolve sins in a confessional. She was a detective, an officer of the law and a soldier and she would deduce what the intents of these people were and present the cases for justice to reign as much as possible. 

Everything was quiet. She figured most people were working in their labs or resting in their rooms as the night came in. She stretched herself and wondered if she should hit the hay as she was already in it. She heard a message ping on her phone. Saw it was Leon. The text said he was here. She had received an email from him earlier on how he would come to the  Arrokoth Facility. He said he was staying the  the 7 th floor as well. In one of the suites as Gresham had decided to delay their meeting. Again.

She called him, “Hey Leon.” 

“Jill, sorry, were you sleeping?”

“Yeah, dozed off but I woke up actually before you texted.”

“That’s cool. I am pretty beat myself. But was going to eat dinner. Something tells me you should eat something? Have  you remembered?” 

Jill’s stomach grumbled. “Yup, I knew I forgot something. Meet you in six.”

“Yup.” 

When they went to another cafeteria in the wide facility, they noticed only a few security guards and scientists eating dinner. Some were just reading their papers and eating, some discussing work samples over the meal. It was relatively silent from a few chatters here and there. The menu had some good selections. There were vegan and vegetarian dishes alongside a menu with meat. They both some salad and vegetable soup but opted for a mini-steak as well with mashed potatoes. They had to admit they were hungry. The gravy was mushroom and black pepper.

“Well, the food is good at least.”

“Yeah. I haven’t had anything since breakfast.”

“Stressed Jill?”

“Well. I still cannot meet Nemesis.” 

“Do you wish to. Still?”

“Yeah. I need to assess the BOW.” Jill stated with a professional air.

“Any grudges?”

“Yeah. I do have a grudge against Nemesis. I mean he did try to kill me unsuccessfully many times. And, he did attack Brad even if Brad got infected in the end. I mean he would have attacked any STARS member. He attacked anyone who got in its way. How can you expect me  tyo just sit around and not even see if it still wants to be a trigger-happy bitch? You know Tyrants are dangerous Leon.” 

Leon saw some of the scientists look at them and whisper. “Well, these guys have a different take. More or less Tyrants can be useful and dangerous. I guess they never have had to fight them.” Leon drank some of his soda, “I mean I can’t fully blame them. When I was younger maybe. They usually have large dreams. I mean, I became a cop too for that. And, like, the Tyrants they interact with are pretty friendly towards them.”

“Yeah, but Nemesis is Nemesis.” Jill ate some mashed potatoes, “It was designed to kill STARS. "Then pensively, “Well, Raccoon City is destroyed. Along with STARS HQ. I wonder what it will feel when it knows I am not STARS anymore and BSAA. Maybe wouldn’t care.”

“Maybe it would really mess up his programming.” Leon looked around the empty cafeteria, “You know when I first faced a Tyrant. Later on, I saw better more expressive models. I wondered if they understood the meaning of past, present and future. The meaning of ‘now’ —like being in the present.”

“You are actually sounding like a scientist.” Jill smiled as she ate some of her steak, mixing with the salad of beet roots, lettuce, red cabbage, “Yeah I wondered that too. Of course, later on. When I had time to think. When I was in Raccoon City my only thing was to beat Nemesis and my utter rage and frustration towards why he wouldn’t die.” 

“I bet he felt the same.” Leon looked at her, “I always felt that Tyrant hated my guts. I kept on getting away. And, I was pissed at it too. Didn’t know why he wouldn’t stop. But when you think on it. It is kind of fucked up that they are living things,  yeah they are weapons but, they are not like a bullet or a missile. And, like all they have to do is destroy and/or destroyed. They don’t have anything aside from a very shaky ‘now’ and for them time may never really move beyond tangible objectives.”

Jill looked down, “That almost sounds like Nemesis would still  wanna kill me. To him, I am still the only remaining  STARS right? Unless...” she shuddered, “It remembers Chris and Rebecca. I know Rebecca and Chris talk to Nian Zhen but...I told them not to come along because of it. I mean who knows what time period Nemesis is stuck in you know.” 

“Wouldn’t that mean he would still think  Wesker is a STARS member too? I mean unless he understands that  Wesker is no longer STARS or even alive.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Jill sighed and drank some water, “All of this is kinda hectic.” 

“Don’t think about it, Jill. I am sure that they have some failsafe. It would be bad for them if Nemesis attacks you for any reason.” he assured her. 

After dinner, Leon bid Jill farewell. She walked into her room and ran herself a bath. She needed it for her aching shoulders. The intercom rang startling her. It was now close to 10pm.

She picked it up, “Hello.”

“Uh, Hi Jill, it’s  Naia . Sorry I was  kinda nervous so I called. I hope I was not disturbing you.” 

“ Nah.Of course not. I know this place can be a bit intimidating at first.” 

“Yeah, I am nervous. I don’t know even if I sleep well.”

“Do you know when you have to be present for duty?”

“I have a day off tomorrow, already. Gresham told me, something I was doing, to see the grounds more and to talk to some of the Tyrants I find approachable. I have like two days to do this. Then after that I am supposed to go to his office at 8am and give  give him some outlines for a syllabus of something. As in, basics of communication.”

“ Naia , that sounds like an exam study period than days off.” Jill felt bad. Gresham seemed to be piling a lot on a newcomer.  _ Beaker Piss-ants. _

“Yeah I know. I did tell him that I have to read data on some of the Tyrants anyway. And, to be honest, I don’t know who would feel cool to talk to me.”  Naia chuckled nervously.

“I mean you can command them.” Jill said.

“Yeah, but that would defeat the purpose.” 

“Right.” Jill snickered, then seriously, “True that.” 

“I just hope the Tyrants somewhat like me. I am here for them.” 

It was ironic. Jill wanted to stamp out Nemesis if necessary. Yet Tyrants like Nemesis were necessary for  Naia to stay and keep her job. It was a bit of a conflict yet she empathised. She felt it may harder to communicate things to Tyrants as her discussion with  leon entailed than fighting them. After all, in the latter, you knew it was  kill or be killed. But communicating if they were interested in something? Seems difficult. 

Jill slipped into the bath, “I am  gonna take a bath.” 

“Sure.”  Naia chirped, “Be comfortable.” 

Jill did feel at ease around her. She seemed nice and sweet. They talked for an hour.  Naia was also watching  youtube videos. It was basic conversation on where they studied and all. Jill recounting some of the details of Raccoon City.  Naia cared and felt terrible that Jill saw so much. 

“There is a moon out.”  Naia mentioned.

Jill was out of the bath after 15 minutes and was dressing for bed and looking through some of the books she had in the facility. “Oh yeah.” 

“ _ The purity of the unclouded moon _

_ Has flung its  _ _ arrowy _ _ shaft upon the floor. _

_ Seven centuries have passed and it is pure, _

_ The blood of innocence has left no stain. _

_ There, on blood-saturated ground, have stood _

_ Soldier, assassin, executioner, _

_ Whether for daily pittance or in blind fear _

_ Or out of abstract hatred, and shed blood, _

_ But could not cast a single jet thereon. _

_ Odour of blood on the ancestral stair! _

_ And we that have shed none must gather there _

_ And clamour in drunken frenzy for the moon _ .”

“It’s Yeats. I was just looking for his poem.” 

Jill felt the words course through her. The moon on Raccoon City. The Nemesis looking at her. She ready with her gun and running away. Attempting to get to the station. At one point, the world had gone quiet, perhaps even the zombies were afraid of Nemesis. Yet, she saw the moon out. Before Nemesis came along. The quietness of some streets and the moon. She realised how wonderful the world would have looked if it was not becoming dead and undead. 

It was the last night for Raccoon City. The moon had come out for one last time for the city. When she and Carlos went to another city and she was treated and resting, exhausted close to dropping her eyes away, the moon had given her hope. The world would continue. Even after what she faced. Even after all this. She did not only need to live in dread. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yup I went there. I decided to write Lemon/Smut. I just thought why not. Well now you guys know what Nem thinks of Jill. I think the next chapter will be a little less fluffy and stuff and a bit more to the lines of the story world-building. I just wanted to focus on Nemesis and Jill here.


	3. Leisure-Like

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, an almost 12k chapter full of Tyrant goodness!
> 
> Also, I dedicate this chapter to Nick411. Thank you for believing in me when no one else would and reading my story before anyone else. You really are a gem of a friend!

**Leisure-Like**

077 woke up with a bit of a start. It was one of those days that they didn’t need to wake up early. As Tyrants, they followed a regimented routine. Usually beginning from 6am sharp. They would do basic warmups even though they were built for battle and depending on the day have a weekly medical check-up. The day changed at times and they were testing for irregularities, their clothes which resembled trench coats or vests, checked to see if all the limiters were functioning well.z Anything defective or problematic would immediately be reported and scanned. They did have a change of clothes but like around three pairs that was all and they all looked identical. They were soldiers and bio organic weapons after all. To be distinct was not really their function. 

Well, he had seen scientists and human soldiers follow the same protocols so it was the same for them. Though scientists seem to have clothes under their lab coats, which weren’t the same and they also were gender differences but the security was usually in attire familiar to their own. Their clothes, like the one the security wore, was for protection and also combat. They were basically supposed to be combat ready all the time. The idea of schooling them may seem contradictory but it did help them become better machines. 

Knowledge is power. As humans seem to say. And imprinting could only do so much. 

They all stayed in quarters similar to dormitories. They did, however, decide to give promising students more space and individual beds next to walls. Singles but nicely equipped. They also argued, he had heard techs, that giving Elite Tyrants bunk beds could become a problem as they were heavy and the Tyrants could crash into another. Their rooms had some privacy, which was a novelty but not fully as their pods, despite regulations were also a bit private. Yes, they could be monitored if so desired but scientists were encouraged not to as that would interfere with the socialising experiment. They decided not to put cameras in their rooms but had sensors and other equipment to inform them if there were any transgressions. Their rooms were connected to their pods too. They usually needed to go in there every day for like an hour or half an hour. 

It was also a destressing technique. The world outside had a lot of noise and lot of activity. Tyrants were not fully designed to be active all day long aside in combat situations. So, living a more outgoing or interactive existence could become taxing for them. Of course, they were trying to improve on that. 077 knew that even without an early wake-up they were _expected_ to go train and not basically have _free_ time. Anyone deemed _lazy_ would be heavily chastised. After all, they were soldiers, bio organic weapons; it would be considered to be inappropriate to some of the scientists if they believed they had the _freedoms_ of human beings. 

What was it like to be a human being? 077 pondered on it. He wondered if being a human was easier or harder. If it always freedom or if having too many choices meant too much responsibilities and having no one to really look out for you. It seemed a bit scary but some of it seemed enticing. He wondered the wonders of having a career and a profession. Humans have catalogued everything, even the most ‘boring’ of jobs, and so it seemed strange that they had all these lives _aside_ their jobs. It was interesting. 

Even the Lickers’ community seemed to be evolving from what Nian Zhen had told them. The encouraging atmosphere was getting to them. Of course, the facility’s prime focus was educating Tyrants and their production and so on and so forth. Lickers and other bio organic weapons were not as important as them. And, yes, Gerechtslinde, that big ass tree he saw everyday was their other primary project base. He found the tree both fascinating and creepy. The Ivy Zombies who maintained it seemed affectionate to their ‘Mother’ tree. 

“I am kind of jealous of them.” 

He once told Nian Zhen when they were having lunch. Before Nian Zhen had retracted in a shell and would barely talk or hold a conversation without suddenly breaking into tears. “I mean,” 077 got a bit shy, “I won’t know what is like to have a mother.” There was a quietness in the air as he stated this. 

Nian Zhen looked at him. Looked back at his food. They were both eating salmon salad, with couscous and herbs and very nice dressing, albeit 077 had a larger portion and had already chose a small dessert of a recommended protein bar. “Yeah. That makes sense. But if it makes you feel better, their mother is just a lesser matriarch of their system and she can be moody and kill an Ivy Zombie she finds well, not up to the mark.” Nian Zhen smirked, “That is acceptable within their ‘society’ but not ours and I don’t think hives or ant-hills are easily okay with getting rid of their children without good cause.” 

077 smiled. He had been happy that Nian Zhen comforted him. “What about your,” he asked carefully, “Parents?” 

“What about them?” he smirked. 

“I mean do you have a good relationship?” 

“Yes.” Nian Zhen smiled, “Though I feel I get along more with my mother than father.” 

“Oh really?” 

“Yup. Dad took some time coming to terms with me with being bisexual.” He stopped eating and realised he had spoken this to a Tyrant and smiled to himself, “And, during my early 20s I was a mess.” 

At that time, it was hard for 077 to think of Nian Zhen as a mess, the man surely knew how to amicable but also carry himself with a deep gravity of respect. “Bisexual. That’s a human sexuality, right?” 

“Yup.” Nian Zhen perked up a bit. 

“Oh, I mean. I guess Tyrants would also share that kind of sexuality index with human beings, right?” 077 scratched his head. 

“I guess so. Yeah.” Nian Zhen looked on, “You Tyrants talk about it? Sexuality?” 

077 blushed, “It is hard not to. I mean. Humans seems to be interested in a lot of war and sex. At least to us. So, it is interesting.” 

“I mean for Tyrants.” 

“It is kinda the same. We don’t have much use aside war. And for the sex or sexuality part,” 077 was pausing, he was nervous, was it safe to talk about this to a human scientist? He hoped he wasn’t breaking all unwritten rules amongst Tyrants, yet he seemed okay confessing to Nian Zhen, “Well, we do think of sex. I think for Tyrants it is at times hard to have a fixed sexuality because we don’t have many choices aside other Tyrants. So, I guess we are kind of, what was that term. I think _fluid_.” 077 heard it somewhere, talked amongst some peers, he remembered it could have been 022 who told a bunch of them that a male scientist had found out his girlfriend was sexually fluid and he wasn’t very happy about that. And, his girlfriend had accused of, the word was hard to remember but apparently it was also in a printed email, “homophobia” and then “queerphobia”, interesting words for him. “Though some of them may be are what humans call ‘straight’, which is hard to be because we don’t have many female Tyrants and I...” he almost caught his tongue, “I mean...I...uh...” 

“I know. Human scientists may not easily be with them. Maybe not even female scientists. Maybe aside sexual reasons.” Nian Zhen was having green tea, he sipped it slowly from a cup. 

077 froze a bit, “Uh, wait, what?” 

“You know. It is no secret. There have been human scientists who flirt with Tyrants. Though they still maintain a distance. And, they are some who take it more beyond flirting these days. Some have been caught.” Nian Zhen tilted his head, “I know you know.” 

077 nodded slowly, “Yeah, but like. It is not a very rewarding experience from what I heard. And, the humans seem to not care about Tyrants.” 

“Yeah, to them, it is something to check off a bucket list. Oral sex with a Tyrant. Kinky and all that.” Nian Zhen had felt disgusted, it showed on his face, he was angry that some shameless scientists treated them this badly without remorse, “I am sorry. Humans can be cruel and selfish.” 

“Well, you are very nice.” 077 smiled. 

“Thanks Sevens.” Nian Zhen used to use a nickname for him a lot. Not many human beings gave Tyrants another code or nickname. They wanted to stay away from them or show their perceived superiority of having a name. Sometimes, he knew 022 would have liked to have a name and used to look at times saddened hearing Nian Zhen called 077 “sevens” because “twos” was hardly a covetable nickname for him. 

“It’s the truth.” 

Nian Zhen laughed. 

“What?” 077 felt awkward. 

“That was a very sweet and human way to respond. Just so you know that.” 

To know it, was _warm_ to 077. And, he knew Nian Zhen meant it. 

Of course, those days, Nian Zhen been in a better mood. Yet, unlike 022, who seemed moody all the time, he knew Nian Zhen’s life from the past year had not been very good. 089 seemed to hold some respect for the pain as well. Other Tyrants, seem to understand. Though it may seem strange to them as in conflicting. As most of them had not much to lose or care for loss in a general sense of the word. A bio organic weapon’s life was loss from the start; their freedoms limited, their movements monitored and their services to be acknowledged in slight. 

They were useful and expendable. Not to be cherished. 

That word always intrigued. Something to ‘cherish’ — he wondered about it. Or, _someone._ Someone to ‘cherish.’ Yes, he cherished Nian Zhen too but their relationship had come under some duress due to him being depressed and... he heard of the that cherishing aspect of people in ‘love.’ Granted, he also got annoyed at times with 053 talked so much about it. Yet, he tolerated. After all, he could see the secret sadness in 053 as well. Sure, he saw 089 see it and ignore it. 

053 knew there was a high chance he would _never_ fall in love. After all, BOWs were built to die and to win wars. Love was a creature for human consumption; its hunt lead by human beings. He knew it was hard for 053, to gain an awareness and consciousness only to be denied the labours of that biological, physiological and emotional feat. It can make them all think. They required consciousness and more brain functions to become effective weapons and no amount of attempting to remove those aspects from them would actually help much to their productivity. 

“Love is a human thing to begin with.” 089 actually tsked in their quarters, “I mean why bother?” 

“It may be nice.” 077 argued. 

“Is it? I see humans become utter fools for it. And, we have the benefit unlike them that we don’t need to reproduce as them. Love is a good chemical response to breed like rabbits. But we have outlived that response.” 089 snickered, as if he was _insulting_ humanity. 

“I think 053 like the companionship and intimacy _aspects_ of love.” 077 defended, something about how 089 spoke bothered him and reminded him of really cut and dry scientists who also bothered him. 

“You really think _those_ exist?” 089 looked at him with a look that was close to mocking as a challenge. 

“Well,” 077 looked down for a moment, 089 may mistake it as defeat so grinned, then he looked up, “Humans may be irrational and weak but they can still reproduce and they can make lasting bonds. And, they are not always impractical. I am sure that form of _intimacy_ has some _value_ aside the material aspects of passing on a lineage. Also, with all respect, in some ways, don’t we too, want a heritage or a lineage. If you could foster a line of Tyrants, I mean you seem like someone who would not take the idea as a joke.” 

089 looked a bit alarmed, only a for a moment. As if, he had been _read_ a bit. The feeling was not something he enjoyed. Then looking away in somewhat of a defeat, he sighed, “But,” he regained his bearings, “Humans lie, cheat, steal and are unfaithful to each other. Their love can be selfish and quite meaningless too. 053 is putting himself out there to hurt if he thinks bonding with humans in the manner would make him happy. After all, don’t we Tyrants face other kinds of rejections? Why add another?” 

“I am not gonna deny your words has some truth. Not all love is good and with good intentions. I mean, that’s what I can feel when I see scientists and humans around me get sad and even cry. Like that one Nian Zhen cried in front of us.” 077 remembered how awkward and quiet they all became in the cafeteria as Nian Zhen bawled and then a nice security guard escorted him away and he had to apologise later. 053 was very affected and talked to him and 022 about it and even 022 was pained. 032 and 045 were somewhat in shock and 089 had muttered a mean comment only to sigh and say he did feel bad for the scientist but crying was useless.” 

“But?” 089 indicated. 

“But I think love can be good too when it has good intentions and is built on respect.” 

“You see that is where the problem is.” 089 looked at his hand and made it into a fist, “You can’t respect a tool of war you have grown in a lab to seemingly clean your hands of blood. To make it easier for you to sleep at night and not puke. We were designed to be like equipment and last I checked; I don’t think humans fall in love with their sex toys either.” 

077 looked at him, “Sex toys?” he heard about them. Yet, he had very _limited_ knowledge on them. 

“We are like a big-war dildo. Good for the kicks but not everyone’s idea of a long time fling.” 089 chuckled, then looked at 077 questioning look, “Oh, you don’t know dildos, I mean vibrator?” 

“Yeah I heard of those.” 077 blushed. 

“Yeah so dildos are kind of like that. Mostly it was engineered for human female persons but male and non-labelled genders may use them too.” 089 laughed a bit, “Humans do love getting their orgasms.” Looking mischievously at him, “You know —” 

“Yeah. I know what orgasms are!” 077 blushed, he didn’t like 089 poking fun at him. 

“I am gonna tell you a secret. Something no one else knows.” 089 looked at the wall. 

077 perked up but asked cautiously, “What...What is it?” 

“Byron. She actually showed me the sex toys, well some of them and explained me their use. She wanted to know how I reacted.” 089 smirked, “Well, it was interesting. I even asked if she used anyway but she looked pissed when I asked her. The second time, she actually did some stuff in front of me. Wanted to gauge a reaction. Not gonna lie. It was _entertaining_.” 089 clenched and opened one of his fists, “She went down on me too to see how I react. It was all pleasurable but Byron doesn’t really turn me on. She has something in her that _disgusts_ me. She is nice looking. Yet, she isn’t really the sort I like. She may get humans riled up but I am too much of a Tyrant.” 089 smiled, “She can fool others but she can’t fool me. She is a scheming one and kind of _tasteless_ and _boring_. Not enough to spark any interest in me. If lust is concerned.” 

“Yvonne Byron is mean.” 077 gasped then bewildered, “Was it you know. Something you also wanted?” 

“Consent is important. To humans.” 089 talked carefully, “Of course, she had my consent. Though if a human told a Tyrant to do such things without it, I would not be surprised. We are weapons and instruments after all. Do we need such things?” 089 looked at 077 who looked wounded, “Don’t worry. From what I know, I do know a lot, no such encounter happened with real force. Tyrants after all are biological. Many of them are interested. It is interesting.” 

“Then —” 

“You and I both know that is not _love_ though.” 089 answered, sensing the question, “I mean maybe part of it but it isn’t all to love. That’s why I said what I said. Tyrants are not gonna be foolish to fall in love with a human who treats them as expendable or who wouldn’t care if they get disposed of in battle or in a lab for defects. Well, wise Tyrants at least or ones who know the distinction between play and seriousness.” Then adding, “Oh and love between Tyrants we know that can be either short term or long but it may end with death easily or separation. Tyrants who love one another or seem to think they do will not waste time. They fuck and get over any restlessness. They have a good run. Sometimes, they be with more than one. Yet, being with other Tyrants is not always very _stimulating_.” 

“Yeah I heard that from 053. He said many Tyrants lack a _personality_. Or, they get so regimented into our routines they do not think about anything else.” 077 looked deep in thought, “I guess even if we look at love as a mating ritual with any gender it means there must be some markers for attraction, which is unique to the mate you are bonding with. Like, Nian Zhen told me in the animal kingdom there are bodily markers, differences in size, strength or scent and colours to attract potential mates or even contexts of a situation helping individuals show off their qualities. I suppose in such a place like ours we feel and look the same so love could be difficult for some to _maintain_.” 

“What a boring zoo we all are in.” 089 laughed. 

“I guess we are a zoo with all the researchers around.” 077 smiled. 

“053 should dreaming about Nian Zhen. You and I both know it ain’t going to happen.” 

“Oh c’mon, he’s his crush.” 077 argued. 

“He is a fool. Nian Zhen rather stay with you and me. 053 is a bit too eager, bit too boisterous on this and Nian Zhen, I guess he is like us.” he winked. 

077 blinked though. 089 treated him akin to him? That was a first. “Well, I am quite talkative.” 

“Yeah but you know when to shut your mouth.” 089 smirked. 

There was always a strange tension between them. Not too close. Yet not too far. 089 seemed to tolerate him and more. Despite his stoic demeanour, he hardly talked to anyone or communicated more than he needed to and it left an impression on others. A firm one on how his personality was formed. 

And, 089 talked to him most. He did not seem impressed by 022’s taciturn aspects as he hid his moodiness underneath it. He exchanges a few words with 045 and 032 but found them a bit too simple as he once told 077. “But they are quite perspective.” 077 smiled. 

“Maybe. They don’t seem to want anything else.” 

“Well, it’s kind of hard to want things when one is a Tyrant.” 077 explained. 

“Still hasn’t stopped you and me.” 089 smiled, with a deep look. 

977 shivered, “I want?” 

“Hmm, I mean you sure look like you want things.” 089 chuckled as he fixed his bed. 

“I...” 077 blushed, “I mean, I am sure they do too.” 

“Yet, their gazes are pent up. You hunger and I can see it.” Casually spoke this as he fixes a pillow made to endure Elite Tyrants. 

“I look _hungry_? Why did that sound vulgar to him? 

“Don’t mean it negatively. You just look like you may other things in this life.” 

“I wished I had more choices as humans did. They live seemingly interesting lives.” 077 confessed. 

“Many have said the same thing.” 089 looked at him, “Though there are variations in their answers.” Smiling, “What do you want?” 

“I guess a peace where I am close to others and well, I know my place in the world.” 077 smiled and rubbed his head. 

089 looked amused, “Don’t you already know your place. I mean we all do. We are BOWs.” 

077 sighed, “I am sure they could more.” 

089 smiled and looked akin to impressed, “I don’t know if the others have thought much on that.” 

“Give them credit. Routine fills all our lives so much.” 077 stated, then smiled. 

077 recalled all these memories of events that transpired when a voice broke out to him: “Wakey wakey, sunshiney.” 

Surprised to see it was 089 chuckling. He was sitting in their one of their study tables. They had four for the four in their room. They had to write reports and had to keep mandatory schedule diaries where various functions were also recorded. 089 was very particular about completing those reports. Negligence could lead to punishments. Extra chores, extra drills or something not pleasant at all like some revoke of privileges. A Tyrant had to be obedient more or less. Refusal to comply with basic rules may make one permanently sealed back in their pods and possibly scheduled to be eradicated. However, 089 seemed to studying his advanced English Language and Literature syllabus. It was regulated with materials from the United Kingdom and were studied by people in Year 11 and 12 or Grade 11 and 12. 089 was one of the few Tyrants in the class and 077 had only got admitted there. Surprisingly, 022 was also in the class though most people thought he was more or less uninterested in everything. In the classroom, he was more alive than usual. Only about five to seven Tyrants took the course and he was lucky he even made it in. Agatha Wagner and Helga Kensley jointly taught it – Kensley liked the course for its specifications of English language usage, tone, linguistic markers and all the grammatical know-hows. She specified this trait would be useful for more advanced Tyrants in information gathering and deduction. Wagner loved the course due to the various content being taught and the articles, essays, letter and poems from every time period to the present.

077 wondered if 089 had liked all of the material or also selected what he found useful or now. It was newly starting the course but it was at a slow pace. When he arrived in the class, they started reading the novel _Things Fall Apart_ by Chinua Achebe. Kensley taught some basics of colonialization and colonialism arriving in Africa. Wagner had introduced the play _The Tempest_ by famed playwright and considered a genius in human history, William Shakespeare, as a complementary piece to their novel even with Kensley frowning on it. In the library (They had one large one in the an outwing for Tyrants), 077 and 089 found some books related to The Tempest as well. 089 had actually offered to help him catch up as he was newly admitted. Wagner was keen about the class inferring human literary and textual knowledge, even if it be in one major language at the moment, to the Tyrants. Kensley felt it was only partly important as understanding clues and cues for espionage required some human literary textual knowledge. The library had resources that were always double checked; information had to be scanned and sought approval from the higher ups like Gresham and Byron and the committee in charge of funding and maintaining the facility.

A good example, Franz Fanon’s, _The Wretched of the Earth_ did not have all its chapters and 077 knew about this from Nian Zhen as he was talking about one of his favourite historical texts that worked with human conflict and had stated it. 089 amd 077 brought a copy from the library also for Nian Zhen to cringe and confirm it had been redacted as the text was to quote him, ‘explosive’, and an anti-colonisation manifesto so it may work against the human ‘masters’ attempted to enslave and keep BOWs in line. Nian Zhen gave them a gist of the book though most happily. It had been pleasing to know of the censorship and regulation of knowledge in their own library but it interested both 077 and 089 to know that human beings did this to other human beings as well in many countries and places, including time periods. So, Nian Zhen said not to feel they were isolated in this even if it felt personal. It was personal yet not uniquely so and both Tyrants had to agree. It was same in the media library; 053 was really unhappy he couldn’t find a movie. “I didn’t want to see The Fault in our Stars or The Notebook.” He gritted, “I actually wanted to see A Walk to Remember. It was written before The Fault in our Stars I heard. And, it had a nice song with the movie.”

“What’s it about?” 022 asked.

“Mandy Moore tutors this popular guy and she is actually ill. Guy is a jerk at first but then he and Mandy Moore’s character become friends and something more. Moore’s character is also religious and conservative, which becomes a problem in public school as most people are not like her.”

“Why must humans not like people with differences? I mean she isn’t always telling about her ways is she?” 032 raised a brow.

“Not really.” 053 stated, “In fact, that was highlighted in the movie, like people are mean to her because well she is different and actually a bit of an introvert. It’s a nice movie from what I heard!”

“I wish we could get this service called Netflix. Humans watch it all the time. But we are allowed limited internet access in our dorms anyway.” 045 looked hopeful. Then blushing, “Hey, guys, like do you ever want to watch the porn humans do?”

All of them looked at him, “What?” he blushed and looked away, “I am sure you guys have thought on it a bit!”

“I seen some clips I mean some dirty scientists showed us. Some of it was like special category, right? Looked a bit painful? Sometimes, nice.” 022 spoke and 032 nodded, “I mean most scientists don’t think we really need it, right? Cannot blame them. I mean weapons to them shouldn’t have to always take care of a hard on. Or, really reproduce. Though, ironically, nothing about modern porn seems to be about reproduction. Some of it also seems rough. Though others are pretty neat and are interesting, what’s the word? Kinky. Yeah kinky. I guess we don’t have a lot of access to porn do we?”

053 pondered, “Do you think we should ask Nian Zhen if we could watch some porn from time to time?”

“No way!” 045 looked horrified, “That sounds completely terrible and actually embarrassing as fuck!”

032 chuckled, “I wonder if Nian Zhen would watch porn videos with us.” Smiling, “Knowing him he might and bring us illustrated aids and popcorns.”

“I mean shouldn’t we have some basic sex education as humans do?” 053 stressed, “I mean the scientists are not dumbasses. They do know, right? That some of us have sexual relations with each other and we do have sexual responses. We may be weapons but we do put the ‘bio’ in Bio Organic Weapons.”

“I think they believe we are smart enough to figure it out by ourselves.” 089 snickered, “Like animals in the wild.”

“But, we are not animals, right?” 077 looked contemplative, “Maybe asking Nian Zhen is not so bad.”

“Yes, but from I heard porn can become distracting and addictive so I think they wouldn’t want Bio Organic Weapons to well jerk off and not do anything else.” 089 pointed out, “Besides, you can read erotica in the library.” With everyone looking at him, he looked unfazed, “Well, it’s the truth and I know it. Unlike you guys.” He smiled in victory, “I mean at least I checked it out.” They had to give him that.

“But not everyone can jerk off always to a fanfic!” 045 moaned and 089 snickered, “Okay, okay, I have done it a few times. Those so-called amateur human writers are sometimes really good in writing uadulterated, what was it called, yeah, smut fics. It feels raw and like you can see it has personal experiences or imaginations in it. Pretty impressive.”

“What did you read fanfiction of?” 022 seemed more interested in the topic of subject.

“Well, we watched a movie remember, _Avatar,_ by James Cameron – yeah, they didn’t want us to watch that movie either but well Wagner and Nian Zhen thought it was cotemporary enough and had beings other than humans. Of course, they also had a big ass tree in it like Gerechtslinde. Well, read some fiction on it. And, some shows we watched from time to time from the archives.”

“Interesting. Was it like human into those alien beings?”

“Yeah.” 045 smiled, “Sometimes, just the aliens or former human in an alien body.”

“Tough luck for us that even if humans transfer to Tyrant-like bodies they look hideous as fuck and not as nice as those extra-terrestrials and thus fucking them under a tree doesn’t seem like the first thought that comes to your mind.” 053 opined.

“Do you think they would punish us for asking for a sex education class or if they know that some of us do have sex with each other?” 032 looked nervous. 077 felt bad for him as he looked like their freedoms would be taken away.

“Why should they if our productivity is not compromised?” 089 argued, “If it helps us be better weapons they can’t argue with the process. Results matter to most of them.” 089 stated this with such an air of confidence 077 had to note its infectiousness. He seemed to usually be the most perspective one amongst all of them. Even if he conversed less with any of them aside occasions as these where a discussion began. 077 noticed how he also observed and selected his words carefully. And, as usual, he did not state any of his own desires as much. No one else may have noticed as much and he played upon the conversation as such. 077 had to admit he found it somewhat eerie as if 089 was gauging everyone as well. Seeing who seemed _fit_ and who wasn’t. If he had any notion of an _agenda_ he hid it pretty well though 077 wondered what it could be. He also pondered if the word ‘agenda’ was appropriate as he did not know ever seeing or hearing 089 mention anything he wanted. Though the previous conversation of ‘hunger’ lingered in his mind. Surely, he hungered for something too. Though 077, at the time, had no clue.

“You know.” 077 spoke, “I am sure asking Nian Zhen wouldn’t really hurt.” They looked at him, “I mean I am sure he can make up some _reason_ and the reason would serve a purpose, right? Having some net access even to some silly things is not bad. I mean sure we probably wouldn’t be able to have a Facebook but something is better than nothing, right? I’d say we go for it.”

089 looked at him with a glance akin to _respect_ , which was saying something. “Can you imagine us on Facebook?”

“I rather not think of dreams like that.” 022 looked glum again, “We are weapons and we already interact with humans here who are condescending and discriminatory. I’d hate to imagine how people outside would treat us.”

“I think some of them would be interested to know us aside weapons.” 077 inputted, “I mean we are not the same and I am sure humans can be different.”

“Yeah, but they might get afraid too. It’s like meeting someone who could potentially kill you.” 032 shuddered, “Sounds terrible.”

“Well, we are around scientists who can potentially kill us and we tolerate it.” 089 chuckled.

“Yeah, but I mean, is it the same? The scientists maintain us so they feel if not safe well I guess okay enough.” 032 pointed out.

“But they don’t tolerate us always either. I think it is easier talking to others behind a screen. Though you are right it could be more dangerous after all many horrible things happen on the internet I hear. It sometimes feels more like a curse than a technology. Something we might share with it.” 089 laughed a bit.

“Don’t say that.” 045 looked saddened at the comparison, “It doesn’t sound nice.”

“Truth rarely does.” 089 gave a smile which was ambiguous.

077 stepped in to play mediator, “I think what he means is well we need some positivity in our lives. I mean it could end any moment. Maybe even quicker than human lives. I know we are lucky we are in this facility but when we get deployed that’s another story and also _if_ we do get deployed; pass the ranks we are put through.”

089 looked and smiled at him, “You would make an excellent hostage negotiator.”

“Uh, thanks.” 077 scratched his head.

“Though as a bio weapon you are on the other side of the fence. You probably will be taking hostages than bartering for their safety. And, you are pretty much the answer to non-mediation. We all are. See, truth can be cruel. You have a talent for words? Who cares?”

045 got quiet and so did the rest. What 089 said seemed harsh but it was not easily denied. They were machines of war and bloodshed. Anything else they possessed if not functional to their primary objectives could be easily overlooked and made miniscule.

“I know it may seem bleak but as long as we are here we can make the most of it. Who knows? Perhaps the people we protect and guard may also want us to to talk to them and feel more well approachable if not more human. And, it would be cool it’s all.” 077 smiled at everyone.

The tension dissipated. 045 smiled and so did 022. Everyone seemed assuaged with the answer for now. 089 sighed but then smiled too. He had to admit 077’s persistence in hoping was at times infectious too. After all, it was not the perkiness of 053 nor the glum of 022, it did not possess the nervousness of 032 and the shyness of 045 but rather a bit of an _optimism_ not mired in daydreaming. 089 had accurately deduced a lot of the traits of his Tyrant peers who hung out with him. Yet, he had always been perceptive, which could be deadly even if useful.

At present, 089 was reading some chapter on _Things Fall Apart_ and reading something from an anthology. It was probably a privilege of the facility that Tyrants usually got new or well-kept used books, which was a luxury to many humans. “Damn, sometimes seeing those books gives me a headache” 077 groaned.

“What are you talking about?” 089 smirked, “You haven’t done at all bad in the class.”

“Yeah, but I hate it when Kensley and Wagner teach two different things and they seemingly argue amongst themselves too while teaching.” 077 pointed out, “Remember last class when Kensley told us that the Achebe has captured a lot of context in this book and then Wagner talked about how this other author and Achebe had a stint with the English Language and Kensley said it was not important and Wagner fumed at her and said why not it was a colonial argument anyone can make and they went at it for three minutes. Then got quiet. And, we all looked at each other awkwardly for a bit?”

“Yeah, I don’t care. They both could like go to a training room and fight it out.”

077 looked horrified, “Humans are not really built for fighting especially those too. They would easily get hurt.”

“Would do us a favour.” 089 smirked. 077 started laughing.

“Yeah maybe.” Started getting up, their beds and desks were close together, “What are you reading besides the novel?”

“Oh a letter in this anthology by a female explorer. Listen to this,” clears his throat, “ ‘I dreamt of bears so vividly that I woke with a furry death hug at my throat, but feeling quite refreshed.’” Looks at him, “I shit you not, this is actually a line from an actual letter.”

077 and 089 started laughing.

Their laughing was interrupted a bit by their _roommate_ , well, who would sometimes stay in doors for a long time or go away for a long time. 022 was not in the room and the snore was one they both knew. “Oh, it’s _him_.”

“Came back yesterday night, _drunk_. Don’t ask me how he got it. I think Gresham gave it to him as a treat.” 089 sighed, “I think it would do him good to clean his bed after all of it. Though he doesn’t clean up much at all does he.”

A _tentacle_ flopped out off of bed and landed on the ground as its owner twisted and hung out his tongue. 089 cringed and 077 sighed, “I guess our Nemesis buddy is always gonna be a pain in the ass.”

“Maybe he is your _buddy_.” 089 looked at him, “Wonder what the _actual_ Nemesis would think of _him_?” 

“You shits talking shit about me again.” A naked Nemesis T-type looked up and smirked at them with a challenging sort of look. 089 looked bored and 077 pressed his index fingers together and looked down for a bit, not wanting all the drama in the morning when he hasn’t gotten out of bed. “And, I am a Nemesis! That fucker Nemesis is over 20 years old and retired. Maybe you dudes like old cock up your ass but I am fresher meat.” He licks his mouth and grins.

“Rather have Nemesis fuck me then you.” 089 looked at 077, dismissing him.

“You would dream of being fucked by me limp cock!”077 groaned as their roommate loudly countered. Yup, too much for the morning. He finally looked at the basic alarm clock they all been issued. Noticing the time. It read in red numbers: 900.

“Could you keep it down?” 089 snorted, “Some of us have to study you know rather than train all day and pretty much flunk classes.”

“By the way, you guys know my name. It’s Draugen. And, what the fuck do you mean flunking!”

089 looked at him with his bored expression, “You been failing a lot and Gresham is being a bit too lenient with you. Aren’t you supposed to be doing some remedial courses today? Or, are you like planning on not doing anything?” looking at him, “Don’t get us into trouble for your tardiness. And, fuck your name anyways.”

077 gasped a bit. 089 hardly swore or got annoyed. The Nemesis model always did bother most of them. He also seemed keen to bother their stoic roommates 089 and 022. 

“At least I _have_ a name.” Draugen looked cockily at them, “You guys are all batteries in some factory. I am unique in my own way. Besides I am not really the old Nemesis model anyway. I am NE-v type.”

089 looked back at him, “Granted you have a name and we really do not. Names are only important if they really serve a purpose I think anyways. Yours is there to distinguish you from other Nemesis models but in a way, you are a working _prototype_.” The stress was there, “And, I usually don’t like being rude to you but I am studying and last time you missed your remedial courses Kensley made us run more laps. We are supposed to be responsible for you in some ways. And, I am tired of being your babysitter. You are a big Tyrant. I am sure you can wipe your own ass.”

Draugen looked back shocked, “I…what…”

077 looked at them, “Maybe we should calm down.”

“I am able to go to the bathroom by myself!” Draugen looked embarrassed.

089 glared, “Maybe then you should go to the classes. As I said, tired of picking up your discarded toys of a schedule. I may even tell Gresham to kick you out.”

077 hardly saw 089 upset or angry. He rubbed his head, “Draugen, you should carry yourself more. You are making us kinda look bad. The other day a maintenance staff worker looked at your side of your room and called it a shit shovel.” 077 looked again at Draugen’s side of the room littered with opened snack bottes, candy wrappers and his sheets messy with sweat, grime and blood (he hadn’t done laundry in a while). His desk itself was filled with crunched paper and snack detritus. Nothing seemed organised. They had limited access to the net now, even some X rated sites, from 10am to 2am. After 2am, the net locked itself and no one aside anyone with a special access code could use the net. They all were allowed their own customised Umbrella laptops and Draugen’s one was incredibly messy and one of his site bars was a porn site still opened with all the racy ads going on. Thankfully, the sounds were muted.

Draugen burped. “Well,” he looked tolerantly at 077, “It is smelling a bit bad if not of dried raw meat chunks…” and then he vomited on his bed shocking both 089 and 077.

“Yeah, you probably have to clean all of that too…by yourself…” 077 commented and 089 cursed under his breath.

“I don’t know if I can have breakfast.” 077 got up and made his bed in a nice and clean manner. The white and grey sheets, their standard cotton apparel. He also sprayed some honey scent on his sheets. He liked it and had asked one of the techs for it and they gave him a small bottle safe to give to Tyrants. “I mean…” looking back at Draugen wiping his mouth and desperately trying to fix his bed with their limited Kleenex, “All of my appetite is gone.”

“We have our assorted milk and protein bars.” 089 informed, their standard solitary mini fridge to help take their supplements and some snacks, “You can munch on that.” 089 finally opened the window and spring light came in. It wasn’t sunny yet but both Tyrants were happy it wasn’t as cold as it was. Seeing they were already cold, they at times had trouble in colder environments or too much heat. It seemed it was smelling more from Draugen’s side of the room now. 077 felt bad for 022 whose impeccable sense of order and neatness were always challenged by the messiness of his neighbour.

“Yeah, I hope we have a good lunch today.” Tyrants ate three meals a day. Though they were trained to go without any food for a few days too aside drinking water. Usually, two weeks in a month they practised this or a week. Draugen usually became cranky as he liked, if not needed, munching on snack bars and he had special allowances to them though protocols were not refrained from him. “I would like to have some coffee too.”

“You wanna make some or? We have limited coffee and tea sachets. We are meant not to indulge on them. But as for humans and us, they are considered good stimulants.”

“No it’s fine…I…” 077 looks at Draugen getting up fully naked and using his tentacles to help clean his bed, “Maybe I need a walk outside and can get some from our small coffee vendor.”

“You know Lucas seems to likes to give us coffee than to human beings.” 089 smirked, “I guess we can’t make demands of him like all those guys. Not so overtly anyway.” 089 smiles a bit mischievously and 077 looked amused, “So yeah, don’t worry I am just reading ahead of our syllabus in the class. I heard Wagner and Kensley were arguing on who would teach us the course or help out as they butt heads too much.”

“You think it may be Naia?”

077 suddenly spoke and realised he had been thinking of her when he was scenting his sheets with the honey spray. He had blushed of it as it reminded him of her skin and face. Looked like sun and earth were slowly draped in her.

“Don’t know. Could be. Though it could be someone from the psych-department who has some experience in teaching this as I am not sure if Naia has for the subject. Though she is a teacher, right?”

077 nodded. “I hope it’s…” paused, “Her.” He kinda blushed, “She seems nice and pretty respectful.”

“Let’s not forget she is also quite sweet and pretty.” 089 looked at his laptop absentmindedly as he spoke it.

“Yeah.” 077 seemed surprised, “Like, I guess she is what humans call _curvy_ I think I like…it…” looks a bit nervous, “And, she has a really cute face.”

“Her curviness is an appeal.” 089 casually stating it looking at his anthology, no seeming reaction, yet 077 sensed a _lilt_ in his tone as if he was _repressing_ something, “And, yes. Her face is quite beautiful.”

“Yeah, cute and beautiful.” 077 smiled, only to realised he hardly heard 089 say a word like ‘beautiful’ before. Hell, he called Yvonne Byron ‘sexy’ not at all ‘beautiful.’ “She seems to have a lot to talk about too. But like I feel interesting things, not Spencer the one that got away and the woes of Wagner.”

089 chuckled. “True.” Then pondering, “You think she has a boyfriend or partner?”

“Who, Wagner? Wouldn’t they be pissed then for her mentioning Spencer so much?”

“No. I meant. Naia.”

077 looked a bit taken aback. 089 usually never cared about which humans were dating which unless it seems like information he can use in a conversation relating to something else. Then he looked focused, “Yeah. Now you mention it. I thought once. Wouldn’t it harder for her to maintain a relationship here? Could be. I mean. She has a beautiful face. Though…I don’t know.” He blushed a bit.

089 looked annoyed, “Yes, true.” Quietly spoke it, “Though you are right it would be hard to maintain those human couplings in here.”

“Who you guys talking about? Who Na-ma?”

Draugen seemed to walk to them. Naked. “Hey fuck-all.” He looked at 089, “Who is this Na-ma. Is it a girl? Is she hot?”

“ _She_ is a teacher.” 089 twitched his brows.

“Uh, Draugen, maybe you should wear some clothes…” 077 looked away. “Her name is Naia though. She is new.”

“Oh wow, hot for teacher, porn categories on that are fun!” Draugen looked excited, “Tell me does she got ‘em double Ds.” He slapped his thigh.

089 actually looked at him with interest, “You know, when I think about it.” He looked again at 077, who was trying not to look at a naked Draugen slapping his thigh, making something else move, “I think she does. She seemed to have nice breasts.” 089 had seen her enter the cafeteria and did look at her face and body. She had nice thighs too. She had toned enough arms. And her chest, spoke for itself.

Draugen’s white eyes opened up, “Wow, seriously.”

Now, to think of it, 077 looked at them, “She is pretty curvy and all.”

“Damn, she sounds _hot_.” Draugen purred those words making both of them a bit uncomfortable. “What’s she like then? Sounds cute as hell too.”

“Well, she is cute.” 089 sounded annoyed again, “You know 077 is right. You should wear some clothes.”

“Cute sounds hella good. You know I flirted with Yvonne Byron before and she just told me to suck her dick. I said gladly and she kinda…looked interested.” Draugen snickered.

“You _know_ how to _flirt_?” 089 snickered. “Should you be though, with human females or males?”

“Hey some of them brush up against me _hard_.” Draugen looked proud. He resembled Nemesis a lot. He seemingly had no skin and the same sort of exposed teeth. The Nemesis models were known for their scary grins. They could, however, change it (they had thinner retractable skin for their jaws to look more presentable for human allies), yet the design team felt the ‘grin’ was good for imposing fear and did not get rid of the flaw the first Nemesis model possessed. Additionally, he had two trails of tentacles from his arms, one the standard red, the other purplish, and one of his eyes, his right, had a long angry scar on it. He had smother skin and less scars than the old Nemesis and he wore no chest implant. His skin did have scars and etching mutations of red and blue and purple. It was a trademark of the NE parasite series. “Believe it or not, I am popular with humans.”

“I wanna choose _not_ to believe.”

“Fuck off 89.”

“Uh, maybe you should cover your _growing interests_ …” 077 hesitantly looked down, “Like, dude…uh…”

“What are you hot for me? Fuck, fine.” Draugen brought a towel from his bed and wrapped it around himself, “So, like, tell me…what’s her name again? Na-ya. Naia, right?”

“We only met her once in the cafeteria. We don’t know her well enough yet.” 077 spoke up, “I mean she is a teacher so I think we will meet more of her soon.”

“Yeah, but like you guys said she was hot. I hope I get to meet her more. It is tempting. Maybe I should tell Gresham to arrange an intro meeting.” Draugen was pleased he thought of it.

“Draugen.” One of the first times 089 did call his name, “You speak like that but you know none of these humans will ever date you? And, about sex. I don’t know. Maybe. Though with your shit habits they might throw trash at you.”

“Fuck off 89.” Draugen smiled a bit more, “Damn some of the ladies look hot. I got my own share of Tyrant babes too.”

“Didn’t one of them punch you across the room a month ago?” 077 recalled.

089 snickered.

“Hey it was just a lover’s spat!”

“Was it Draugen she called you a cheat.”

“Hey Sevens, she was fucking a Tyrant R too. She didn’t say we were _exclusive_ and what are we, _humans_? I mean isn’t it an unwritten code we all are kinda open? I mean don’t you have to do some special things to say you are exclusive. She didn’t give me a bone charm or teeth charm.” Draugen folded his arms, “Vanessa can suck my dick.”

“Vanessa, wasn’t she wanting to date you 089?”

Draugen’s eyes opened wide in absolute shock and annoyance. “Oh, yeah.” 089 stated without interest, “She even asked me out the other day.”

“Did you say ‘yes’ this time?” 077 smiled.

“Vanessa has poor taste if she has asked you out. I think she even asked that Hypnos guy, what’s his name, 053 out too. I mean isn’t he like fully gay or something?” Draugen snorted.

“I think he does like girls too but yeah he overtly shows interests in boys more.” 077 explained, “Vanessa and 053 have slept together though.”

“Wait, what?!”

“Well, if you still wanna know.” 089 coughed and got into the conversation, “I did not say yes at all because Vanessa does not interest me.”

“Why did Vanessa punch you then if she does not really wanna be exclusive?” 077 asked Draugen, then signalled 089, “She is pretty though, Vanessa, like even humans look at her.”

“Vanessa is an asshole. She got mad because she was doing another Tyrant and saw I was too. Biased asshat that one.” Draugen snorted.

“I mean sure she is what many Tyrants and humans call ‘beautiful’ but she is too aggressive and doesn’t think much at all. She also is pretty vain. You noticed that 077.” 089 expressed his views, while flipping a page of the anthology he had been reading. Then stares at Draugen. “What makes me think even if someone gave you a bone or teeth charm you’d still sleep around.”

“Seriously, fuck you 89, I am not that much of an asshole. It’s our code for exclusivity. Of course, I would follow it!” Draugen looked insulted, “We can reject it if you want but I am not gonna accept it without thinking on it.”

“Well, Vanessa is one of the only female Tyrants and a Steel one at that. And, she has this sway at times. Though butts head with Copper.” 077 knew of the Elite female Tyrants but he hadn’t spoken to them much. In the cafeteria, the female Tyrants seemed to have more ranks due to their rare presence. They did not associate with everyone and usually also sat with humans. Vanessa had a large fanbase though and even had meals with Byron many a times. She also had a lot of male scientists and technicians liking her.

“Copper is prudent anyway.” 089 observed.

“Also, a prude.” Draugen looked bored, “Hell, I don’t think she hooked up with anyone. Well, not recently. I was asking Vanessa if she hooked with male or female Tyrants when we were together and said Copper was liking her new dry spell. Though she was never that sexually active anyways as per the rumour mill.”

077 noticed the gruffness of Draugen’s voice; Nemesis models seemed to be roaring more or less or the time so their voices, like most Tyrants, rumbled and growled a bit albeit their models had a more piercing one akin to scratches as if their long teeth so similar to fangs helped with the quality. It was a unique trait to Nemesis models and 077 liked it. “Does it bother you she isn’t?” Hu

“Not really. It just raises some brows mine or others you know. Tyrants may not be sexual. Like, it’s also a thing. For some periods, Tyrants may fuck and then get bored. Happens. Fucking is like sunbathing and eating and training for Tyrants. Sometimes a thing you do, sometimes just like any other job – she just doesn’t seem _trustworthy_ in it it’s all.”

“You give a shit all if someone is _trustworthy_ or not?” 089 raised a brow. 077 had to admit even if 089 hardly swore he had to keep up with a certain ‘language rapport’ with Draugen. 077 wondered if it was the way 089 also _adapted_ to situations.

“Dude, I do.” Draugen challenged, “I have no problems killing any of you but if I fuck someone they gotta be not crazy enough to stab me while we fuck.”

“I am not gonna lose sleep over you for saying that.” 089 snickered.

“If I wanted to kill you guys I would have already!” Draugen roared, then looked _apologetically_ at 077.

077 gave a slight nod. The only person in the room who Draugen _respected_ seemed to be him. They got along more or less. 022 disliked him and he never made it less apparent. 089 tolerated him at best. Draugen was loud and arrogant, cocky to a fault and incredibly strong with good reflexed and like the original Nemesis could sprint if he had to and leap a well enough distance uses his tentacles as support. However, he hardly had any friends as Tyrants used to avoid him. The other Nemesis T-Types respected him but they seemed wary of him as he was supposed to be their modified model. It was hard to be friends with someone who was meant to replace your line. Ironically, he did seem to get along with 053, they were friends but Draugen acted at times in front of them they interacted less because he felt _strange_. 053 was close friends with them and they didn’t seem close friends with him. It could feel awkward. The Nemesis T-Type who mostly associated with him was Nergal, who like 022 and 089, was quiet and wore long dark leathery robes and was trained even with his larger body to be a sleek enough assassin. Nergal was one of most of the most advanced T-type models so him feeling an inferiority complex was reduced if not altogether extinguished.

“Yes, I know.” 089 chuckled, making Draugen glare.

“Please Draugen clean up your side.” 077 requested, “You and 022 can’t start fighting again.”

“Okay, Okay.” Draugen let the towel slip for a while making 077 blush and 089 snort, “I am gonna do the cleaning now.”

“Well, I am gonna go outside to the courtyard in a bit. I need that coffee.” 077 chirped.

“Sure Sevens. But first the bathroom. See you fuck wad.” Draugen signalled to 089.

“Kiss my dick, prototype.” 089 showed his arm, as if shoving it up his ass. 077 realised the two had a weird rapport and they _skirted_ around _respect_ with each other. Though it seemed precarious and subject to instability.

Draugen left the room and 089 sighed, “Well, he is a character, can’t fully complain. Need some entertainment sometimes.”

“At least he said he will clean his side of the room.”

“Good. Needed that mess and weird smell going away.” Looking at 077, “Guess what I saw yesterday? A thin novel in the library I think someone put as a joke, though it is a serious fiction winner called _Bear_ by Marian Engle. It’s about a woman who does some stuff with a bear. I haven’t read it yet though but the blurb says that.”

“Wow, humans sure write a lot of strange things.”

“Well, I think it is about some librarian in the wilderness mostly so it is a thin line between something humans would say taboo and then literary.” 089 explained, “Wonder who put it in the library but I think they didn’t expect any Tyrant to leaf over it much unless by mistake.”

“Well, something tells me you don’t think of yourself as most Tyrants.” 077 smiled, though he wondered the truth of his own words.

“I guess in some ways.” 089 smiled, “I see you been perusing the erotica type section in the library. _The Malady of Death_ , huh, what’s it like?”

“Oh yeah I thought why not. Yeah it’s a short novel. Starts of really nice. Is in the, I think second person, looked it up.”

“That sees interesting. Read it a bit for me?” 089 smiles.

077 feels actual warmth in it, “Yeah sure:

‘You wouldn’t have known her, you’d would have seen her everywhere at once, in a hotel, in a street, in a train, in a bar, in a book, in a film, in yourself, your innermost self, when your sex grew erect in the night, seeking somewhere to put itself, somewhere to shed its loads of tears.’”

When he read that he, without any strain or perturbance of intrusion, though of Naia. Was she someone his blood knew? His flesh? The symmetry of him? He couldn’t tell but something in him, a primordial instinct and deep humming in his bones sought someone like her and keenly called on her. He wondered what he felt.

“Sounded great. Should borrow it after you.”

089’s voice broke through, “Yeah, you should borrow it next.” He rubbed his head.

“That passage was pretty…well introspective.” 089 observed, “You think it is a lot of about longing, don’t you?”

077 nods. “Interesting.” 089 hummed out.

077 saw him pensive, which was his natural demeanour. “I am gonna go out to the courtyard now. See you in the cafeteria during lunch?”

“Of course.”

* * *

Naia stretched outside. It has been two days she had come to the Facility and she had been pent up in her room reading research papers. Most of the research papers published by the Facility were Licker focused even if Tyrants were the Facility’s prized gem. It seems Tyrants were still being studied and when she used her log in she found out some working titles too; some of them expertly co-supervised and written by Gresham. Byron had written a few but most of her work was related to the tree. There was one very interesting paper on the Ivy Zombies. She noticed the Matriarchial system specified an unkniwn BOW as well yet had not spoken a lot on their origins and name stating it had to be confidential (special link was given to members like but she had absentmindedly not clicked it) she was looking at how most plant zombies had a good enough life span. When they die their nutrients are observed again by Mother tree and they are all basically her drones. The Ivy Zombies did have gender specifications though as they retained a lot of humanoid DNA and possessed plant RNA as well. So, some of them could be hermophrodactyl as plants and she flowers and she found this interesting. There had been some case studies of Ivy Zombies living in the lab with a Licker or two and it usually it ended in violence so integration was not fully replicable or possible at present. The Lickers and Ivy Zombies also lacked a ‘youth’ per say as most animals in the animal kingdom so there was a theorised lessened capacity to develop and interspecies empathy or collaboration. The paper concluded, supervised by Wagner:

“… it appears the cradle of civilisations and germinations require a stage of liminal infancy. Puppies and kittens take a few weeks to open their eyes, kangaroos have their pouches, even calves and foals stay close their mother and elders so all these complex vertebrates develop and grow with a deepened understanding of instinct and sensations. It encompasses a knowledge and a way to move in the world. Lickers and Ivy T-virus mutates have no such origination or period to ‘pupate’ we can say. Their mutations may occur rapidly overriding and bypassing countless genetic markers for evolution. Perhaps, this is why they lack better skin and features. It could be observed the Lickers due not always do well in direct sunlight and even Ivy T-virus mutations require the shade of the Mother tree. This may make them potent weapons and helpers but prove to be quite inadequate for other tasks unless they lessen their aggression and find mutualistic aid from surrounding organisms.”

The paper had her researching more on the biology and cognitive functions of Lickers and Ivy Zombies. She had not spoken to anyone for two days and Jill may have gotten busy as well. The dinner with Nian Zhen had gotten fascinating as he initially talked about his work. However, from fascination it became dread, as he drunk too much and she had to help him back in his room. There was a long moment he held her and cried saying he missed them.

She realised he lost some people recently thus his spiral of depression. She helped him into his bed and left.

So, she had been researching. Yet then she felt nauseated and realised what poor sleep she had been having. She decided to come out to the courtyard. There was actually a nice man called Lucas Ramirez selling coffee. They chatted a bit.

“So, you like working here?”

“Lady, I love it. When my cousin told me, they needed someone to work as a vendor here he didn’t tell me it would be for Tyrants.” Lucas looked happy, “It’s been so interesting. I love talking to them guys. I am happy I am here.” The smiling, “Here you go. Expresso with some chocolate in it and cream.” Though worried, “You sure though? You look really tired.” Lucas looked like he was in his late twenties and was very handsome.

“Yeah, I am sure.” Then added, “For now.”

“Okay, pretty lady you take care.” She blushed a bit.

She was just sitting in the courtyard near a fountain and was looking at her phone. Alexa, her best friend since she was in university, had messaged her and asked how she was doing and if she would come to visit soon as she missed her already. Naia talked about the Tyrants a bit, what she was allowed and how she was getting along. They could talk a bit as Tyrants were public knowledge. Anything else would have to be kept secret and it was mandatory to use facility wi-fi on grounds so they could screen keywords in messaging apps. It may seem to break privacy laws but it was a legal exception here as they were working with bio-weapons. She then got a message from an unknown number. Saw it said:  
  
“Number: Hi it’s me Leon Kennedy. We met at the elevator with the damn plant. asked Jill and she said you said it was okay the last time you guys talked if we can share numbers so here is mine. So, if you are free later today lets hang out I would actually like to know your impressions of the place and just talk if its okay

NAIA: Yeah sure Leon! Hi good to hear from you!

LEON: Thanks. So, we can have some coffee in one of the courtyards later”

Looks at her expresso.

“NAIA: Yeah sure we can

LEON: Cool, so you doing okay?

NAIA: Yeah, just kinda sleepy been reading lots of stuff

LEON: Anything good?

NAIA: Yeah all work related maybe I will tell your more during the coffee stuff

LEON: Yeah sure =)

NAIA: Thanks you are up early enough

LEON: Yeah habit, what about you?

NAIA: Haven’t really slept…much…

LEON: Are you sure we should have coffee then?

NAIA: Don’t worry we can still meet up =)

LEON: Well, I will call you if you are asleep I know you won’t pick up xD

NAIA: Hehe sure”

She finished messaging with him only to look up and see an Elite Tyrant looking at her. She was startled and realised she was so into the messages she hadn’t really paid attention.

“Oh, I am so sorry! I wasn’t seeing what you were writing! I just came to say hi if its okay!”

She saw the number of his shoulder and recognised the soft eyes a bit, “077?”

“Yeah.” He rubbed his head. His other hand had coffee.

“Oh you are having coffee too.” She smiled, “Wanna sit next to me?” she offered.

“Yes.” He felt he said it before even understanding what was asked.

077 calmly sat down next to her. Then he looked at her. She looked tired. Though the sun fell on her soft honeyed skin and her reddish-brown hair. And he noticed now she had subtle freckles. He sighed. She looked really beautiful to him. “What kind of coffee you having?”

“Caramel Macchiato.” 077 blushed.

“I love that flavour too.” Naia smiled warmly.

“Are you having it too?” Though he smelled something stronger.

“Nah, expresso.”

“If you don’t mind my asking you look tired. Are you okay?” he was a bit concerned

“I been researching a lot most of the night.”

“You should rest.”

“Yeah, but I guess I am really excited started the work even if Dr Gresham and others don’t think it may be useful.” She looked determined. He admired it.

“I am sure you are gonna do well. You seem really invested in everything. We loved talking to you the other day.” 077 says it quickly, then gets nervous.

“I am glad you guys did.” Naia smiled.

There was a silence between them. Though it felt secure. Safe.

“So, 077, what do you think about names? Remember I think 022 talked about human names. What do you think?” Interested she asks.

“Well, I know 022 would like name. Yes.” He nods.

“What about you? Do you want one?”

“I have a nickname.”

“Really?”

“Yeah Nian Zhen calls me Sevens from time to time.” Smiles a bit, “I know it doesn’t seem so unique but well, it is the only name I got for now aside 077.”

She thought of his name. Sevens. She was thinking back to a 00s movie. She saw it when she was younger. She remembered it sounded nice to her. Had a nice ring, “Slevin.”

“Huh? Naia?”

“Oh sorry, I was thinking of this Josh Hartnett movie. It was called Lucky Number Slevin. It was kind of a thriller and it was really suspenseful until the name. Hartnett’s name in the movie was Slevin. I liked the sound of it. It sounds like something to do with seven or eleven but it was actually also a lucky number in some ways or rather an unlucky one but it also had a deep history in the movie. I liked the sound of it.”

“Slevin.” He mouths it, “It sounds kinda well not common. I like it. I like it a lot.” He smiles. “Can I keep it?”

“Yeah.” Naia stares then softly smiles, “Do you want me to call you Slevin.”

“Yeah, lucky number Slevin.”

They both smile under the sun on them as the birds chirp now and then and the wind rustles. A warm breeze cuts through the cold.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, hope you guys liked this chapter. Yup 077 is Slevin now!


	4. Meeting in the Courtyard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a very Nemesis oriented chapter and I am pretty excited about it!
> 
> Dedicated this chapter to The TentacleCommander who lurks these halls and is pretty famous. Thanks for your insight and hop you enjoy my writing of Nems!

**Meeting in the Courtyard**

Nemesis sat outside and felt incredibly **bored**. They may call this exercise time but he hardly did anything. He was still getting used to his body and how he operated. It just didn’t seem to very _fun_ to him. All the peace and quiet actually _haunted_ him. He was not used to this non-volatile way of living. This existence of being in ‘solitude’ or a form of contemplation. Wasn’t this what some humans seemingly wanted? Technically, he understood its merits — the feeling to be able to unwind and be into yourself, to ponder and have time for yourself.

Yet, did a Tyrant like him, a prototype of a NE-T type launched at the end of a century and millennium, did he possess something which was a human equivalent to _yourself_?

He thought on it. Wasn’t thinking a sign of life or existence: “Cogito Ergo Sum: I think therefore I am.” A scientist, Nian Zhen, had told him when he visited him at intervals.

Nemesis had no passion or trust for scientists. Or, science for the matter. Though he could considered a product of their science it enraged him to believe they would know intimately all his workings and limitations. Considering, human beings seemed selfish and arrogant to him, he found their knowledge of him seeped also in such an arrogance. This feeling they could master and control him so well. Perhaps, this is why Jill intrigued him more. She did not pretend such fancies and knew she was a threat to her survival and treated him accordingly. He would have liked this kind of respect from scientists though he knew they could him a bit more fiercely than Jill. Perhaps, this connection was mutual.

The plants, the _flowers_ , everything seemed so well _maintained_ and regulated — made him feel kind of sick.

He could walk more if he wanted. Yet, he was tired of this serenity so he had sat down. He was actually tired of a lot of things. His bones hurt and his muscles ached. He was _aging_ in a short sense of the word. He did not like it. Wasn’t he already an obsolescence? Having more was...yet, the pains also seems to come from...his previous battles within Raccoon City.

As a Tyrant, feeling pain was not new to him, he knew how to sustain it, endure it, even thrive in it, a sadomasochistic form of drive that propelled his kind forward without nothing much to claim as their own. Their possession became a pain; the form of pain, which alerted them of their existences even if life was not necessarily bestowed on them or could not be easily won. Yet, this pain was aftereffects of all the damage he had sustained.

“It seems pain has been grafted to his DNA. It is like DNA and genetics know of it even in Tyrants. You know they are a humanoid base sample. We know trauma passes on and becomes part of our makeup. We can say the same for Tyrants now to the same extent.” Nian Zhen spoke as he looked at charts.

“Well, nice he is around so we can learn the ‘geriatrics’ of Tyrant care.” came a sarcastic reply from a Dr. Gresham, who Nemesis knew was one of the higher ups scientists in the facility.

“He isn’t that old you know.” Nian Zhen chuckled, “Maybe for a Tyrant who was made in the 1990’s and was an experimental sort of project but he isn’t that old anyways. Tyrants may age as humans. Concerning they can age as well, most are killed off in battle or used for….” Nian Zhen felt a bit uncomfortable speaking like this in front of Nemesis’s hearing, as if he found it rude and uncouth, “Raw materials.” he concluded after the hesitation.

“Well, at any rate. If we didn’t need any samples from him and any data, all our resources of getting him a suitable body would be pointless. I mean, it is pointless if he had no data to harvest. I mean, no qualms on tentacle fetish, but a walking tentacle dildo is not what I asked for.” Gresham laughed.

Nemesis felt a fury in him. He was not a...sex toy. He felt actually ashamed. What was this human saying? How vulgar.

“Oh c’mon Alaric…” Nian Zhen rolled his eyes, “Do you have to say this in front of him?” he pointed to Nemesis then, sitting on an examination table, wearing a Tyrant sized white hospital gown.

“I don’t care about his or its feelings. I mean he is a useful science fuck toy from what I care.” Gresham laughed.

The laugh was...Nemesis had to admit. Vindictive and cold. He had no idea humans could be this detached. Jill hadn’t seemed like this at all even when she was firing bullets at him, slashing him with a dagger or kicking him and trying to roll exploding barrels at him.

It seemed jarring to him the human in a lab coat seemed more _cruel_ than actual human soldiers. He shivered a bit. Fortunately, none of them noticed.

“Oh c’mon Noelle, don’t get an emotional hard on for it.”

Nemesis has also noticed Gresham used the man’s other name for him when he seemed more or less annoyed. He didn’t use it always in a casual sense. “Ricky boy, just saying it is best to have etiquette after all.” Nemesis smiled slightly, he knew the term would incense Gresham.

“Etiquette for tentacle porn?” Nemesis covered his frown hearing that, “Well, we are already doing him a huge favour keeping him around.”

“You did say and we both said it,” Nian Zhen started with determination, “That he will be a great mentor of sorts to Draugen? And well, Nergel and Foe?” Nemesis wondered who they were at the time.

“Draugen lacks Nemesis’s coordination, I will give this old dick that.” Gresham commented, “And focus, he is restless of all of them, yet physically quite superior to even Nergel and Foe.”

“Nergel and Foe have done excellently in active duty. You had the mayor of the Southern town giving us all those accolades due to Foe and Nergel taking out those hired assassins in three days, without any political backlash to his re-election.” Nian Zhen pointed out, “He was especially impressed by Foe, her being a female NE model.”

“Everyone is impressed by Foe.” Gresham laughed, “I mean she has a scary mouth like all NE types but she looks good.”

Nemesis sighed. It was getting exasperating.

“Well, I will help Nemesis out. I mean he could exercise and nice balanced diet. Though,” looks at him worried, “He is getting used to his new body. His heart muscles are thicker and wider now, he doesn’t necessarily need an implant to support him anymore. We had the technology to graft better organ tissues now than before. So, I think he feels disoriented. The implant did give him a lot of morphine and a cocktail of other synthesised drugs to help him cope with larger damage and aided his limiters.” Nian Zhen spoke carefully, “I think he needs the rest from all the work, he is facing exhaustion. And, he needs to start eating solids though he struggles so we give him mash and mostly potatoes and fruits. IV nutrients is good too.”

“Well, good, just see if he talks more now aside screaming STARS.” Gresham snickered, “Has he regained his vocal capacities?”

“Yes, surprisingly, the bursts of mutations he had had during the ending hours of Raccoon city made us feel he wouldn’t. He talks slowly though. Getting a feel of these words. Usually, he just sits silent under his own volition.”

“Well, Nian Zhen, just don’t be too lenient on him. He is a data chest we can use. Also, I wanna see him fight and train Draugen soon. Let’s see how good he is as a mentor. Does he have the intelligence? And, it would be perfect seeing and older prototype go up against a new one.”

At the time, Nemesis had not known Draugen or any of them. When he finally met Draugen he was looking at a NE model taller than him by an inch or two, bursting with muscles and a good streamlined waist as him yet _two_ eyes with one having a scar and a grin which spoke a lot. “You came before me. You are incomplete.” Draugen laughed at his face. Nemesis had wanted to punch him. He also seemed top have two sets of tentacles and wore a more sleeker trenchcoat. Draugen was dressed in pretty well-fitted and excellent clothes, his boots shone with leather and spikes and his hands also had arm bands and spikes. Nemesis felt _envy_. When he wore his tenchcoat it looked more like a meshed together set of garbage bags or a body bag customised to fit him; it initially covered his face too, like a plastic executioner’s hood. It was meant to be intimidating and it served its function perfectly. He remembered Jill driving into him screaming: “It’s my turn bitch!” and then the flames revealed his face, and the man Carlos called him “fuckface.” It was somewhat funny. Even he had to admit it.

Nice to know every NE model had his kind of “Fuckface” though. Draugen had it despite his good clothes. Draugen was also pretty cocky and arrogant. Also, trigger happy. In a training simulation, Draugen fired five rapid fire shots of a customised rocket launcher, which Nemesis thought was an overkill for basic Lickers and then he went and threw a Licker around as a rag doll as its bones and blood and flesh became meshed with the walls and the floors of their training room. Nemesis gave a look. “What?” Draugen grinned back. He then proceeded to use the remains of the Licker, with its spinal column and large tongue jutting out, as a fleshy whip against one or two surviving whippers. “Hmmm” Draugen looked at the spine with interest, “Malleable enough weapon.”

He met Nergel and Foe in the training room as well. Foe and Nergel were very relaxed compared to Draugen. They were NE-T types, though modified and advanced. They were all his later models. Foe was a _female_ Tyrant. She had puckered sort of lips but had his similar teethy grin. Nergel was sleeker than him and Draugen. Both he and Foe wore leathery sort of robes, he acknowledged him with a nod, “Nice to meet you Nemesis.” Foe spoke, her voice scratchy yet _eloquen_ t, she had a _grace_ to her as well. So, did Nergel.

Despite himself, he found himself checking out Foe, she was an inch or two taller than him two, muscular arms and lithe, she had large enough breasts and very defined hips and abdomen structure, a sleekness and muscle combination, which Nergel also shared. Their arm bands had riveted metal and their clothes, though leather, seemed billowy as if to assist with a lighter step and more speed based movements. “We are built to be perfect assassins as well. We are good runners and are adept with long range weaponry. Foe has a lot of talents as well, which I do not possess.” Nergel seemed to have seen them observing them.

Foe brought out bone extension from her elbows coated in steel; they were blades, “I can quite good with these.” She winked at him. She also had darker rims around her eyes as if it was skin grafted makeup. He trembled a bit as she winked. Who knew? He would like _female_ attention? Though he was not so interested in her. He had to admit she was as beautiful as Gresham and Nian Zhen spoke about — terrifying yet beautiful. And, in all honesty, Nergel with his sleek looks were turning a human head or two as well. It seemed he was more popular than Draugen. Personality counted yet Nergel looked _good_ and possessed a _charm_. It felt odd to look at his own species as _attractive_. Never had he he thought he would be doing such a thing. It piqued his own interests. Is this what humans felt doing their own assessments of each other? He had remembered Carlos always paying compliments to Jill, praising her and he even heard calling him ‘brave’ before he burst in to go after the brave soldier.

He had to admit. He finally understood Carlos. And, he was glad he did. Something masculine and male in him, in spite of being a Tyrant, liked this  membranous like kinship with another male creature. It felt somewhat oddly validating. 

Y et Foe and Nergel also seemed to consider Draugen with some disdain, Nergel was more tolerant. Draugen flirted obscenely with Foe getting him glares and she even stated: “Fuck off whore.” at one point to him. All these uses of language and speech, the _banter_ among NE types was something he never even began to imagine he would witness. It seemed alien yet enticing. How was it conversation came to these NE types so easily? Were they reared for it, imprinted? Surely, to an extent? Yet, he seemed them doing more than merely existing when Foe accounted to him a sense of routine, structure and needs fulfilled and ticked on the daily. The surge of envy returned with a deepened frequency. How could he exist as them? When he knew so much and yet so little? When he has seen so much of a combat space? When he had seemingly aged. Was he already a redundant template? The thought brought him misery yet also infuriating him.

He picked up a flamethrower. Let the heaviness set in his hand. The other NE types watched him curiously, he picked it up and aimed at a Licker who snarled at him at a distance. It picked up speed relatively quickly, angry seeing a robed NE type even pick up a battle with him, after all he was still in a Tyrant gown and all the others were in combat gear. He moved aside fast enough, though his bones creaked and he felt it, his motions were st ill fluid and taut, then he turned around and burst the Licker into flames. Its mouth screeched and it fell down rolling and slowly  dying. The kill was neat, clean and sophisticated. It was done by an  **expert** . Nothing short and less. 

His hand hurt a bit and he almost dropped the flamethrower and put it down and rubbed his wrist. Still was getting used to his new body and all his lack of use of muscles and the genetic loads of his past fatigue. 

Foe, Nergel and Nian Zhen who had  showed up actually  _clapped_ . “You are truly  _the_ Nemesis aren’t you?” Nian Zhen smiled and even Foe and Nergel looked at him in admiration. 

Draugen had snorted, “What’s the use if it has zero blood?” 

Well, he was basically a  _retired_ veteran. It was as Draugen had spoken, what was his  _use_ ? They have made more advanced NE type models and he was basically an obsolete form of a thing they have kept alive to harvest samples and data. Though, it had felt  _good_ , very  _good_ , picking up the flamethrower and just showing the new bloods how it was  _done_ . He enjoyed the thrill of the hunt still. He enjoyed being  _purposeful_ . He wasn’t sure if it was in his design schematics or something he actually, by himself, coveted. Yet, it seemed nice to enjoy a thrill. After all, his tenuous form of peace felt well, as Draugen would have said, incomplete.  He looked at his tentacles. He looked at a large slug like insect walking around in a courtyard grove. The slugs seemed manufactured by Blue Umbrella. They had the trademarks of a biologically modified or engineered thing. Tiny little spikes pulsated out of them — a defence mechanism? It looked as if they only came out if they sensed something malevolent. Well, his right arm’s tentacle was pretty malevolent. They were right to  _fear_ it. 

Before a slug knew it, it was picked up and brought to an image of pointed teeth — the tentacle still sinuous and swift had caught it without any effort. Nemesis twisted the squishy slug against his less squishy tentacles. It’s little spikes but a prick to his mottled yet impregnable flesh. The slug did not stop squirming. It wanted to live. Even if it stopped a bit; feeling the grip of the tentacle tighten. Nemesis let the slug go back to where he caught it. It seemed shaken for a bit but then wiggled away as if it life depended on it. Nemesis sighed. Was he reduced to killing slugs in his spare time? No. He didn’t want to take a life that was not a target. Though his retirement had him ruminating on such things a bit. He had not felt joy in killing the Licker just showing his skills were sharp and not as dulled as they would like to hypothesise or merely he was built for the kill so his creaky bones still had it. Nemesis breathed out. At least the sun was out. And, it warmed his mottled skin and helped with aches. He had a vibrating form of pain, which his chest implant via morphine and other drugs had dulled and increased his natural adrenalin.  It seemed pain deferred could not be delayed. Not after a while. 

“Wow.” 

He heard the gasp and immediately, like a gun scope, had his attention drawn...to the source. Who was a human woman. Young woman. Age bracket a bit hard to detect: Mid-late 20s or 30s? He scanned her in his fashion of assessment. He titled his head. She had wavy short hair, reddish-brown, painted blues and purples? Some faded and some new on her hair. She was holding a coffee cup of sort. The man, Lucas, he sold them. He had seen them. So, she was from around here, obviously. Not necessarily a visitor, he did not detect any foreign smells as of yet. Additionally, visitors do not wander around the courtyards, unsupervised especially in the vicinity of Tyrants. Especially him. An older model NE type. 

She was _pretty_. Nemesis had to admit. She had a curvaceous body type, a nice amount of _fat_ , he liked this slippery sort of fat thing humans had which he did not necessarily possess, though she was also a bit toned, her arms seemingly more muscular oriented than Jill’s or many female humans he saw, her hips nicely rounded and she had fleshy yet muscular thighs and legs. He also noticed brown freckles layered on her cheeks. A nice nose not too long or short, cute enough. And, a nice chest size. She had what humans would be called an attractive body in its own way. Yet, her face, was also quite attractive. He wondered, if humans thought it too. She had an allure of her own. He felt it.  Who was she though? He was lucky the security around him, also bored, lax and they walked around and took a shit elsewhere. Probably on their phones, talking to partners, or watching vids they could laugh at together or texting. No one was close by. Yet anyways. They came back eventually and then they acted they did a job well done. 

“Wow, you are Nemesis!” 

She looked really excited. He had seen these types around him. Usually, some scientists. What were they called again?  _Fans_ ? Yeah he had a few apparently. Eager to sample his blood and talk to him about how they were  _honoured_ to meet him and he was still part of the cutting edge of Tyrant tech. Well, he did not really care much for them as they were scientists and he didn’t essentially trust much of their kind. Even the nice enough Nian Zhen.  Possibly because, he didn’t always know what side he was in. Even if he seemed friendly enough. If he was with Blue Umbrella and overseeing Tyrants to a good capacity the matter of how his existence benefited would go through them. Yes, Nian Zhen did make his life a bit easier for a while before he seemingly became an alcoholic and he did not pry on the why. However, he just mulled through all of them. 

“I am sorry...uh, were you busy?” she asked him

No human ever showed him this. Asking him if he was...he wanted to chuckle…he was busy shooting the air.  Yet, he never really had a human ask him if they were  _interrupting_ before. This was interesting. 

H e just stared for a bit. Though he knew he had to do something nor else the cute human would think he was stupid. Something, he could not tolerate, at all, especially when she had fucking  _asked_ him something. Before she could say something, he nodded a ‘no’ quickly. She smiled. Nemesis though she looked sweet with her honey-earth like skin and neat lips and big eyes. A different hue than his. A yang to the yin of his white eye. She looked at him again, “Are you here by yourself?” 

He nodded. “Oh.” she looked at him, “Are you resting?” he shrugged in response, unsure what the hell he was doing out there in the sun aside looking at his own existence like the slug in his tentacle, “ Should I leave?” he quickly nodded a ‘no’ — a fucking hell ‘no.’ He  _wanted_ her to _stay_ . 

S he carefully, with small steps, approached him. He actually shivered. Those legs and that cute saunter. Even Foe did not do this to him or many other humans. Perhaps, it was the lilt of her voice. The sweetness in it he found a bit inescapable under the sun. Like her soft honey-like coloured skin. “Uhm, hello…” she looked at him a bit awkwardly, after all he was Nemesis and she was out alone with him, even though he was wearing a dotted hospital gown, he could look intimidating, “I am Naia.” she smiled. 

It was reflex and cultural memory embedded in muscle, so she thrust out her hand and Nemesis looked at it. 

A handshake? He had seen humans do it. No one had asked him for a handshake either.  Naia looked like she realised maybe this wasn’t the best thing to do. She let the hand hang for a moment, yet when she wanted to retrieve it, Nemesis took it _softly_ in his and shook it  _softly_ too. Delicately, as if she was precious china, he never wanted to break. His hand was warm, yet he found her warmer then even humans he had held in combat or for support in the lab room he was kept.  Naia smiled at him, brightly. 

“So, uhm, how are you?” She asked, as he let go nicely. 

“Bored.” he growled out an answer, she almost stumbled back. His voice scratchy and rough, deep and guttural, almost like a roar. For a moment, he was alarmed too as he hardly spoke and wondered if she hated his voice. He didn’t want her to leave. Would she go away? Scared? He wanted her to stay. _Please stay_. 

“Oh…” Naia regained her bearings and smiled, “Why?”

He actually looked down. Why did this seem like a difficult question? He wasn’t really used to  _talking_ ...and no one asked him these sorts of questions. “ I...don’t know…” he growled at himself. He felt he sounded boring himself. And stupid!

“That’s okay. I guess we got all get bored sometimes sitting around.” Naia actually sat down next to him on the brick sort of bench and realised she done it. She looked at him and he actually _smiled_. Looking at her with his singular eye with something akin to _tenderness_. 

She did not know why, something in her made her go, “Coffee.” She offered him her own and then added before she knew it, “We can share if you want?”  _What the fuck...is he allowed this? What the fuck am I doing?!_

Nemesis looked at the container and came to be aware he never had coffee before.  Nemesis also realised something else. When had a human being or any creature asked him to fucking  _share_ something with him? Wasn’t sharing food at times an act of intimacy? Was this human actually okay doing this with him? She could NOT be a regular scientist! 

D ue to his delay in answer she went, “I kinda drank some of it already. I needed it.” Nemesis then noticed he looked tired in some ways as him. “We don’t have to -” 

Nemesis wasn’t letting the chance of a new experience be left out. Especially, with a willing human female who looked cute.  Whose big eyes and smiles were started to get to him. Who looked at him with those kind of eyes? Or, even smile at him as such? Aside novelty it was a  _nice_ thing. Yes, nice. Like the sun on his back which helps him heals his aches and the wounds from the past. Vitamin D seemed something he needed too. Who would have guessed. He took the container and did his best to sip on it, his lack of lips making the task a bit difficult if not improbable for his Tyrant body. He dumped a heap on his tongue. It burned a bit. He grimaced. 

“Oops I am sorry. It is still somewhat hot and that’s like espresso. Mother load of coffees.” She giggled. Nemesis liked the trill of her voice. It’s warmness and seemingly genuine aspects surprised him. Had any human spoken so truthfully at ease with him? Not many he could count. Nemesis gave the container back. Wasn’t sharing supposed to be this? He wasn’t an expert after all. Oh wait...he put his mouth near it...granted he wasn’t a walking parasite...but..he knew if someone looked at him...lipless and menacing almost by default…

She took it back gently. Hesitated it a bit. “Well, fuck, it’s a good sized large.” And drank from it. From what she knew BOWs like him could not easily spread any virus just by tongue alone. Her max research had paid off well. 

Nemesis looked shocked. She actually...drank from the same container as him…? She didn’t find it weird? She took a sip and gave it back. He took it gently. And, sipped again. The act made it taste better. Also, he was liking the bittersweet, strong taste of this espresso thing.  They were sharing the coffee and sitting peacefully together. Perhaps, the peaceable companionship made the peace bearable. The quiet seemed better like this. 

“The day is nice though. You got anything planned or...like what do they have you do?” 

Good question, “Nothing much.” he spoke a bit softer now, still the growling trill remained, he supposed it gave him  _character_ , something humans also spoke around him, thinking he was a dumb shit and didn’t get anything they talked about.  Then he asked, he could he got it, like it  _excited_ him, “What are you doing?” A question! He tasted it. It felt good. This agency in conversation.

“You know. I may go back to studying some papers. I am new here. I am meant to be a teacher for Tyrants.” she answered him, detailing specs as if blueprints, he hardly talked without a definitive point, so, she was new here, a teacher for beings like him? Wait….was she here to also be _close_ to him! The answer made him shiver. She could be close by him... it wasn’t a bad thing. Was she here for a job spec with him? Didn’t seem like it. Still, no reason for her to be this nice. “I am not here for any reason though…” as if sensing his inquiry within himself, “I saw you and was like ‘didn’t say Jill say she wanted to meet Nemesis? And that’s Nemesis’ I saw pictures of you.”

“Jill? STARS? She wants to see me?” 

He looked surprised and she looked hesitant, “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.” Who the hell even apologised to him? 

“No. It’s ok.” He smiled, “Is she still STARS?” 

“Would you hunt her if she was?” Naia looked scared. 

“No. No.” He didn’t actually like her scared, “Curious.” He explained. 

“You know Raccoon City got destroyed, right? Like in 1998. That is like, when I was a kid. So, like 22 years ago.” 

Nemesis knew it, “That...long ago…” she nodded, “Blew it up?” 

“Yeah, the virus contamination, according to the government then, was too hard to contain so they basically nuked it.” she knew it seemed callous, “Of course, later investigations found some tampering.”  
  
“What’s there now?” 

“It is mostly like some memorial. No one has decided to rebuild it obviously fearful of radiation traces but also because of the painful history many people have decided to stay away. Though, some people have resettled nearby. So, STARS as you knew, doesn’t exist anymore. Jill is a BSAA agent now. They are a bio-terrorism counter task force and they are extremely good and efficient. They have been around since like 2006, 2008. Don’t remember.” Naia explained to him, “So, technically, that makes you one of the survivors of Raccoon City. There aren’t many you know.” 

H e was a survivor? 

He thought on it. “But I am a biological weapon.” getting used to his unused vocal chords and voice, “I meant to...survive…I guess…” he knew he didn’t believe it. They bombed the city and he would have been murdered. They may not have even extracted him because of his last mutation. Knowing this infuriated him. The fact no one cared even to extract him for data. 

“You could have been killed…” Naia quietly spoke, “I like we met. So, I wouldn’t want you killed.” 

Nemesis had never had anyone wish this for him before. Yes, he craved this from Jill. But...but he also liked this female human saying it. No, this pretty beautiful woman. With her sweet lips which seemed naturally painted and big brownish-black eyes and soft fluffy face. 

It was at the moment, he felt a  _stirring_ underneath.  _Oh…_

It was a part of him which existed yet he didn’t fully use aside bouts of self pleasure, hormones arresting him. Now, it stirred. Only Jill had the effect fully before. It was this woman's scent, her fat and fluffiness, her sweet words, the aftertaste of some bits of her in the coffee and her _kindness_ .  He was still soft though just not what he had expected all of a sudden. 

Then, he answered, figuring it was too quiet and she may think he was not interested, “I am glad. I met you.” with some effort, “Naia…” he felt her name on his tongue. It tasted as strong and sweet as the espresso. 

Naia smiled at him. Then started fiddling with her face a bit, “Dammit.” she whispered.

“What wrong?” he said, though he liked the slim, long shape of her fingers and the musculature of her nice hands with subtle blue-green veins underneath, amazed it reflected so well under her honey-like skin. In contrast, he was a mishmash of pinks, purples, skin looking burned and something close to ‘Caucasian’ yet not quite. Her hands looked well maintained. The nails seemed to be painted, not long, yet, he wondered if they were added on as he saw some female and male scientists wore. He knew some humans fiddled around with add-ons such as this. 

“Oh sorry, it’s something stupid.” he doubted it even if she spoke it, he did not categorise her as ‘stupid’, she seemed kind and alert and those sweet big eyes, pools of a night sky, looked everywhere kindly and observed with elegant respect, he was noticing their fire, different from Jill’s ambitiousness yet also akin to the same flames of determination, yet a bit quieter than the spitfire of a soldier. In all honesty, she reminded him more of Jill too and he enjoyed this as he recollected how calm and kind Jill was around Carlos when they gained each other’s respect; he wanted to have it with Jill though, he liked having this with her too, as knew they had some respect already of each other, “Well,” she laughed making him focus again, “It’s a pimple. I think it will go away but late nights, amirte?” 

“Pimples?” Not knowing what it exactly meant. Yet, he took a closer look, going really close to her face, _Is it a wound?_ He thought as he looked at her freckles, which he knew of, and perfect milky honey skin, _Beautiful_ , he concluded as he saw her fluffy skin, so rich in looking nice, he did not see wounds there. 

She pointed at a spot. “It is like a rough collection of oils human skin has see?” he noticed a small dot, a slight blimp in her symmetry, not really as much noticeable as she pronounced it, if she had not pointed, his frame of vision would ignore it as the brain usually ignores even his own crooked like nose (though more aligned in his new body), “It is basically a way for your skin to rid yourself of excess oils and dirt pockets. Sounds weird, but if you wash and clean it goes away and if you press on them they make tiny scars. They also happen if your diet goes haywire and your sleep.” Humans seemed more complicated then they looked. A diet could make those? Nemesis wondered if his humanoid body also produced such inconsistencies and wondered on it a bit. Before he smiled. 

He showed her his mottled arm’s skin, as his gown did show off more of his muscular, fierce arms than his old outfit did, which resembled taped up armbands, “I think a pimple looks better than this.” 

Naia chuckled and actually started laughing. Nemesis smiled. Please keep doing that. The lilt of her laugh was so sweet. Not mocking or cruel like Gresham’s, not arrogant like Draugen’s or condescending like stupid scientist, it was full of life and energy and  _respect_ . “Did you make a joke?” She asked and he nodded, “That’s pretty funny.” she chuckled and he chuckled with her. It may seem surreal yet it was happening. 

Nemesis. The fierce,  abominable Tyrant was laughing in a courtyard with a female teacher. About skin issues. It was zany and the situation  was unprecedented but felt good. Naia felt it too. She was actually laughing along with  _the_ Nemesis in a courtyard in a Tyrant based facility. Never in a million years would she have thought this could happen. 

H owever, their peaceful time was clearly interrupted as Nemesis saw a male scientist come up and start berating Naia. Like literally go out on her as she stood up apologetically attempting to be sorry. As she got up so did Nemesis fast on instinct. The male scientists called her ‘a useless noob’ and ‘a bimbo.’ Naia blushed deep and Nemesis found himself slowly  _growling_ . The male scientist said a noob like her should be not be going around and talking to _the_ Nemesis and where the fuck where all the guards. When he asked what she did she replied meekly:  
  
“I am the teacher. On the social empathy case.” 

“Oh fuck, no wonder. Like seriously, why even bring you idiots here.” 

“Look, I am sorry, there is no need to be rude.” 

“Rude? Are you dumb? That’s Nemesis. And, no one is usually allowed near him without special permit. You are not special. You are just a fucking teacher. You probably here to polish our shoes.” 

“Excuse me…?” Naia could not believe how messed up this guy is being, “You should watch yourself, I answer to Dr. Gresham.”  
  
“Do you fuck him too?” The scientist sneered, “Like would make sense -” 

“How dare you?!” Naia was so infuriated. And, she heard a _roar_.

A legitimate

** ROAR **

She suddenly was pressed against a huge body and looked up and saw Nemesis with his fangs out and challenging the scientist. Who actually fell down in fear, “Hey wait...you can’t hurt me. I work here!”

** ROAR  **

The scientists actually started crying and wet himself as he struggled to stand up. 

Naia stared. She was in nestled in Nemesis’s arms. Nemesis  was  **furious** . 

He met Naia. 

He liked Naia.

And, he was getting a bit _possessive_ and _protective_ of her. He paid most of his fucking dues. Was a good bio organic weapon. Followed rules. Listened to all these cumshots of humans condescend him. He had to have some _respect_ to spend some fucking time with someone who he actually was beginning to like! 

Hell or high water. He was not losing it. 

Also, the sexual insult hit a nerve, when Gresham called him ‘sex toy’ — he felt Naia being insulted in the same way. And, he wasn’t letting _h_ _is_ cute human be talked down either. 

Naia held on to his arms: _Am I dreaming?_

The scientists seemed to run away with his peed on pants and screaming hearing Nemesis full on roar at someone was fucking scary to say the list. 

Naia shivered a bit, she wasn’t in trouble was she? Nemesis was being gentle with her. 

He put her down. “Sorry.” he looked at her and apologised. Hoping he hadn’t scared. Really hoping. 

She looked at him, “No, thank you. That was kind of you. That guy was being a jerk.” 

Nemesis nodded. He was on an adrenaline high. Maybe it was the coffee and maybe it was also someone said ‘thank you’ to him. 

“You won’t get into trouble right?!” Naia looked so alarmed, for his sake, for him, his heart actually skipped a beat, was it possible? How was it, “I mean, please don’t worry!” she cared, “I will tell them what happened? I will apologise I…” She looked sad, “Dammit. One of my first days and I mess up.” 

“Not your fault. I roar.” Nemesis wanted to console her. No one ever got worried on his account either. So many firsts. Something in him stirred with it. Was she also to be first of many things? 

“But he was being rude to me not you.”

“So? I didn’t like.” Nemesis was very confident on it. 

Naia thought, “I still will explain the situation. I will say you were...standing up for me.” she smiled, “Thank you so much.” 

The praise lifted him. Okay, nothing about any of this was boring anymore. Should he come to the courtyard often? Would she come too? 

Then she looked at him, “Are you coming here tomorrow as well?”  _Oh yes, you asked pretty human_ , “I mean do you know?” 

That was actually a good question. He did not have a relatively fixed schedule as he was not a Tyrant on active duty. “I...I don’t know…” 

Naia seemed to ponder on it. She then sighed. Nemesis looked on and wondered what she could be thinking. 

She put her cellphone on silent and handed it to him. “No one really calls me much and I think I can find Leon on Whatsapp for tonight, so it’s good. I will call you…” 

“Who is Leon?”

Nemesis wondered if it was a partner’s name and was feeling a bit grumpy and wondered if his life would be better if he was a human and STARS himself. Then he could hang out with Jill and now Naia wouldn’t having to feel they were so different or having the perception of an otherness. 

“Oh, he is a new friend I made.” though she blushed a bit and Nemesis frowned. _So, it is a he_ … “Though I can show you…” 

“I know. I mean I see humans. Know how to use phone.” _Well, Leon has not her phone. I do_. He smiled to himself as he confidently answered. “You can call me.” And, he understood a pretty human woman was okay to call him, _Suck on that lab nerds_. He snickered under his breath. Then seriously, “I keep your phone safe. Don’t worry. I won’t get caught.” 

“Thanks.” She smiled, “See you soon I will call you later. Maybe late evening. Okay?”

“Okay.”  
  
Nemesis watched her go and studied her frame. 

A guard came back and was telling Nemesis why he made a scientist piss himself out of fear. Nemesis hid the smart phone under his heavy shoulder tentacle. 

“Oh you know. Just testing out if I still got it.”

The guard stood in shock. 

Not only has Nemesis hardly ever spoke but he wasn’t expect him to say those lines with a grin. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yup, that is that. Tell me guys what you thought! Comment too they keep me alive and motivated!


	5. Dinner Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, I decided to carry off from last chap a bit!
> 
> Also, This is chap is dedicated for Nic, you know who you are! Thanks bud, you are an awesome guy!

**Dinner Date**

LEON: Oh hey….so you didn’t fall asleep?

NAIA: No, I didn’t * does victory dance*

LEON: * chuckles* Still, you should get to sleep soon or else you will keel.

NAIA: True that. I am pretty tired.

LEON: So...rain check?  
  
NAIA: You know I haven’t really eaten anything the whole day so dinner sounds wonderful...just prepare to see me wolf down…

LEON: Hehehehe nice. I been caught up too. I talked to Nian Zhen, he talked that you guys had a nice basic chatty meal on the first day here. But Gresham apparently has a meeting with a governor who wants to hire some BOW for insurgents. He has a valid pass so I can’t go get pissed off. Apparently, they are using some really messed up Lickers and Revenants and a few Ocypetes so they need to fight the BOWs with a more specialised BOW.

NAIA: Can’t completely argue with that.

LEON: You know, I wished we could go back to a world without BOWs.

NAIA: Then I wouldn’t have a job

LEON: * chuckles* Okay, you have a point.

NAIA: So, ,meet you in the cafeteria?  
  
LEON: Which one. Isn’t there like 4 of ‘em.

NAIA: Oh yeah, right. Two of them have Tyrant clearance. Two of them are smaller. Well, you wouldn’t wanna see Tyrants up close do you?

LEON: Not yet. Most of my memories with them have been well you know….bad…

NAIA: I am sorry

LEON: Nah, I just can’t imagine one day I would be in a facility like this as I fought so many of them.

NAIA: So it has to be either Burgundy or Sapphire Cafeterias.

LEON: They do have it with the colours...hehehe which one is smaller?

NAIA: Burgundy.

LEON: Let’s meet there.

NAIA: Yeah...uh...something is wrong with my phone...uh, so don’t call me. Let’s just meet there at 5:30pm on the dot?

LEON: Sure, it’s a date.

NAIA: Right, sure =)

Naia felt she was blushing a bit. She knew he probably meant it as a kind comment but hearing the word ‘date’ had that kind of an effect on her. How long has it been since I been on a date? Naia thought. It may have been four to five years. She had a boyfriend in the last year of high school. They went to the same university and soon when she started to begin depressive symptoms they had amicably broken up. She did have a sort of engagement with her own best friend, Alexa. However her last relationship with a guy had ended in four months. He wanted other things and was not very sure of the future and seemed to have been using her to pass time. Of course, they did have a minor fight and when he wanted to get back together she had strictly told him “no.” Didn’t make him stop trying and he even sometimes messaged her hoping they could reconcile. He was hoping to get married now and felt she was well “not bad” for it. But Naia just didn’t feel they had much of a connection to begin with. He was physicist who made a lot of money. She remembered he was very pleased she got a job in the Tyrant based facility and said he did visit it from time to time. Hoping it may get them back together. She showed interest only in what he did there rather than meeting up with him immediately, which somewhat annoyed him in the chat.

Yet, she couldn’t lie. She was a bit attracted to Leon. She knew about him because he was praised as a good cop yet everything else was a mystery. Jill spoke highly of him, which made her like him more as to her Jill was a great voice of knowing character. She could tell as Jill did not elevate or criticise people on a whim. Even her descriptor of Nemesis had seemed accurate. Relentless. Though gentle to her Nemesis seemed determined in a positive way. And, she felt he had a lot of direction for a Bio Organic Weapon, which she felt was lacking in the younger BOWs. Hell, he even seemed more composed than her. With Leon, she felt he was someone who wanted to talk and was easy enough to approach. Something told her this was not necessarily a way to gather information. After all, she was new and would not be able to give him much aside what she learned in archives and though it had benefits Leon could easily talk more with Nian Zhen who seemed amicable enough to get along with almost everyone. Nian Zhen had more information than her anyways. Perhaps, he wanted a newcomer’s perceptive of the place and know more about what she was designated to do. However, an instinctual feeling stated to her maybe Leon had liked her a bit too. Though she wondered. She wasn’t necessarily gorgeous looking in traditional ways like Yvonne Byron and she was chubby so she wondered if Leon would really be interested.

In her life, she had been shot down by more men because she was not wearing a lot of makeup, or particular kind of clothes or because she was a bit more fat at one point. It was embarrassing when she had asked a co-worker for his number and he had declined when she was in university teaching and then most people giggled if she came by and talked to him. She had been infuriated by their behaviour. Later on, the once peer seemed happy to see her somewhere else when he changed jobs and was almost close to flirty. She had lost weight but perhaps he was starting to like her but his blasé way of dismissing her made her somewhat distant. It wasn’t rejection which pained her fully rather the privileges these people seem to feel entitled to for their fit bodies, perfect faces and all of it, so sure to become mean without much of a thought of the repercussions of the meanness. After all, she wasn’t being creepy or stalkerish with them so she wondered why they felt cruelty was what she deserved. She was used to being the girl who was not really looked at when it came to dating. Some other women too seemed unhappy she was not being so openly flirty or engaging so they became spiteful of her and mean as well. She was just shy in some of these things. She had wanted at times yet never knew the joys of being wanted fully. The only meaningful relationships she felt she had had at the point was with Alexa when they had been together and her first boyfriend. Alexa and she really did work better as friends and her first boyfriend still sent her messages and was nice to her. He had married and moved on and had like three kids. He met his wife in university and they went for drinks a lot before she was a shut-in.

Everything else, had been casual. Though there wasn’t enough of it. She had gotten used to being alone and enjoying her company. Though there were times she wondered what it would be like to be fully committed to someone once more. Especially, now, where she was in her 30s and feeling more centred if not conventionally successful.

She had wondered if anyone would like to have her as a partner/girlfriend. Allow her to take care of them and be in turn taken care of her. She chuckled and felt like a school going teen again. She was just happy that Leon and she could talk as she did need friends around. Jill had texted her she was busy but would be free tomorrow so she scheduled a coffee meet. She had been researching and out of courtesy and duty had emailed Gresham on the topics she had been learning. He had not given her a reply back and she now assumed it was for the governor's meeting. She knew Nemesis get a ping on it if he did reply back to her during dinner but she also knew they were not really speaking of anything classified a Tyrant wouldn’t know of. Also, in a few days, she would have her own facility catered smart phone for anything classified and she was looking forward.

She took a nice shower, lukewarm water so she didn’t fall asleep, blow dried and set her hair and wore a pair of nice jeans, a nice enough top with a lacy neck and was emerald green in colour, some knee length dark brown boots and just put on some lip balm. She wasn’t always into makeup and decided against it. She looked casual enough even if her top was a bit more eloquent. She walked up and saw Leon had been there and she had a feeling he had gotten used to arriving a bit earlier than expected. A habit. He was dressed in the same jacket and same jeans but sturdier boots and a very nice shirt, almost lavender, that contrasted well with the dark brown boots and good leather jacket. She wondered, if he had dressed up for her? She blushed even at the thought of it. _Nah…_

Leon smiled at her, “Hey Naia. How’s it been?”

“Yeah it’s been okay. Wow, I am starving.” She wondered if she should say that but what the heck.

Leon smiled, “Yeah me too.” They got into the Burgundy cafeteria, “Is it me or does this place look like it was being used for like some classy restaurant.”

Naia and Leon looked the polished wood, elegant chairs and even some waiters helping out and realised this was an experience for people who had not gone out much and wanted to feel relaxed enough. Of course, it also seemed exclusively a human space. Coral Cafeteria, where she had been with Nian Zhen, was accommodated also for Tyrants. This place wasn’t really and it seemed to be a place where people could also entertain important human guests. Though no sign of anyone else. The tables hand lighted candles now in their sleek, silver candelabra, expensive looking objects and the table coats a nice burgundy aligning with its namesake. She wondered if Leon would pull back as the ambience was seemingly _romantic_. Instead he just smiled, “Wow, if I had no idea this was facility I would be thinking classy three star hotel. I bet your room looks gorgeous.”

She nodded, “Yeah, it was something.”

“Yeah, my suite looked like some minimalist duke could vacation in it.” Leon laughed and they both moved forward without a refrain. She wondered if he thought the setting _tame_ and shrugged to herself. She was used to not being seen as a _woman_ by some people so they could decontextualise her from certain situations. It sucked and hurt a bit but she was okay in a way as Leon had made no big deal. “You know,” Her thoughts interrupted, “I haven’t had a candle light dinner in a woman in like forever.” he smiled, “If I am rusty and boring please forgive me.”

Naia blushed stark red, “Uh...we don’t have to.” so he did look at her as a _woman_ and she was finding it hard to process, “I mean eat here.”

“Oh damn, is it because I didn’t dress to impress.” Leon winked. _Dammit, fuck— is he of all people, this Adonis, flirting with me?! No can’t be….wait, can it? C’mon Naia, have some confidence, it’s key, besides you are cute and you are pretty enough. Alexa said you had a hot bod. OWN IT._

“No, of course not.” she smiled, “You look like a model as usual. I bet people tell you that a lot.”

Leon rubbed his head, “Yeah they do.” though he seemed unsure.

“I mean I love the jacket. And the boots. Super cool. Tactile and classy.” Naia spoke with a smile.

He smiled, “Thanks I try. But I was not so keen on clothes in my early 20s. I just was being a kid who didn’t know much.”

“Yeah I know I still have issues picking out the right thing.” Naia laughed.

Leon actually gave her a look, “Well, you look perfect now, if I may so..”

“Thanks.” Naia blushed as they sat down. A waiter came up and stated they could order or just get the buffet. Even before consulting the menu, Naia asked if they would be serving steak. They had choices so she chose Sirloin, medium rare, mashed potatoes, mushroom sauce and even lobster spaghetti _. I think I do look like a hungry one_. Leon smiled and actually ordered the same thing, “Glad you know your food.” She ordered a nice sweetened wine for flavour and he ordered beer though when it came he poured it in a wine glass. They were sipping their drinks and waiting for the food.

“So, how was today?”

“It was good. I had some nice coffee in the courtyard. Walked a bit. Met Slevin -”

“Who?”

“Oh, I gave a name to a Steel Tyrant. His batch name is 077. So, I gave him the name ‘Slevin’ and he liked it and so I said he could keep it if he wanted.”

“Wow, aren’t you getting started.” Leon laughed, “Thouigh you have specified job details yet?”

“I been researching a lot though and gave some of those updates to Dr. Gresham though I presume he is busy..” Naia informed, getting hungry now as she waited on the food.

“Yeah, he is busy. Though I feel like he always wants me to ‘be at home’ and like the facility. After all, for me and Jill, people who combated Tyrants, we would be iffy about them so getting us on his side is lucrative.”

She nodded as he sipped his beer, “Though, can you see them anything aside BOWs?”

Leon looked at her and smiled, “But they are BOWs.”

“No I mean. Not just weapons you know.” Naia implied.

Leon pondered on it, “It’s gonna take me some time to be honest. But I will leave it to you. I mean I don’t know the Tyrants as anything aside opponents yet and it can be subject to change like so many things.”

“I actually met Nemesis.”

Leon stated at her, “And?”

“We shared coffee.” She dumbly stated.

Leon gave her look. What was she talking about?

Naia explained how she happened on him in the courtyard and the roar when the guard came along.

“I guess a Tyrant is always a Tyrant.” he sipped his beer but then started at her, “You know in this case I am grateful. Fuck that guy.”

“I don’t know him. I don’t know if I wanna.”

“Yeah, well, you should tell Gresham.” Leon looked angry, “That’s clearly harassment.”

“I am new here so I am gonna watch out. And, yeah, if needed I will report.” Naia looked on gratefully at Leon.

“Fuck man, it’s so strange I have to say this. In this situation, a Tyrant had better manners than a human guy.” Leon shook his head. Then seriously, “Weren’t you scared? I have seen pictures of Nemesis and those NE-a T types and well, let’s say they don’t look like the most composed sort even if their grins would be considered photogenic.”

Naia chuckled, “No...I...he was just sitting by himself and he seemed approachable.”

“Approachable and Nemesis? I think Jill would have a heart attack hearing you say that.” Leon chuckled too, “So.” continuing,”What is he like _now_?”

“I think a perceptive sort of person. And lonely.” Naia drank some of her wine.

Leon smiled, “You just called Nemesis a person.”

“Yeah, he is.” Naia spoke in a very confident manner.

Leon chuckled, “I think the Tyrants are lucky to have you. They maybe have needed someone like you all along.”

Naia blushed, “Someone like me?”

“Yeah. You know. I am an agent and a soldier and I don’t think I can always look at Tyrants as you. I have seen them as opponents, weapons used by an opposition, clear in their function in wanting to _kill_ me.” Leon spoke carefully, Naia could read the tinge of sadness in his voice as someone who had weathered a lot in his life. She could see him hardened but could read the sweet glows of optimism every now and then. It was unconquerable thus made him more attractive. “However, when I read into it. I haven’t met Tyrants in settings like these — and they haven’t met me in situations like these either. So, what if? When you just said of Nemesis and how you viewed him I started wondering would I be able to view him the same? So, I feel you are helping me think in the manner of good ‘What if’ situations. And, it is nice. Perhaps, the Tyrants need that too.”

“I am supposed to teach them social cues and empathy. Many of their smartest and most keen and intelligent, I read up, are doing human level academic classes.” The compliment had made her continue in another vein. She was not used to be complimented by someone so pretty and kind. Leon had a lot of kindness and he seemed loyal to a fault. Also, duty bound and perceptive. Yet, he also lacked the arrogance of many intelligent and competent people and she had a bad feeling he and Gresham would not have a good opinion of each other.

“Wow, that’s something. I wonder if Mr. X would have done all of it.” Leon laughed a bit, “The trench coat guy in school would be entertaining.”

“Who is Mr. X?”

Leon smiled and told the story of the first Tyrant he ever encountered. In his _first_ day of work at RPD. Naia listened in awe as he told how X was able to just pick up a helicopter and he had yelled “Jesus Christ!” and shooting on him was like shooting on absorbent metal and ripples of metallic ocean or some weird version of play dough. And, when X punched it felt like his jaw was going to unhinge and he realised then and there X was gonna kill him, flatten him into human saucepan if he didn’t run away from him. He also noted flash grenades had an effect of blinding and he used it to escape and when he finally made him take a small knee he was panicking on how many bullets he had exhausted and desperately searched for more gunpowder as X had not stopped the flow of zombies. Nor did he care as he pushed them aside as though they were annoying rag dolls. Hit them as though they were evading the line to flattening Leon like patty. Finally, explosions had broke his limiters and he had mutated and came out not caring but intent of killing him now more than ever. And, he had to work hard to not get killed by his flaw and shot at his overt heart and marvelled at his jawless mouth and the ripples of metallic muscles all over his abdomen created to kill and destroy.

“Oh, Mr. X. Now I remember, he was the T-103 Tyrant model. Most of his line has been discontinued or updated as the heart was too prominent and their super Tyrant form was not as fierce or manageable as they wanted.” Naia informed, “Hmmm, why was he called Mr. X anyway?”

“I think it started off as a joke between me and Claire because I don’t think if you know this but there was a board game in the 90s called searching for Mr. X or something and Mr. X hid their face with a hat and trench coat. Mr. X was usually one of the players of the board game and you had to find out who. So, it made sense because we found out he was made by Umbrella so he was someone within the ranks of Raccoon City only it took time to find out. I guess our naming of him became so popular in our testimonies they went with it as an official name to distinguish him.” Leon related.

“Yeah I remember that board game!” Naia spoke, “I was pretty young then.”

“God, you are gonna make me feel much older.” Leon laughed, and Naia realised Leon was older than her than Jill as she had been a few years younger when they were fighting off Tyrants in Raccoon City.

“Nah, Leon, you are cool.” She stated happily. When their food came, it seemed the waiter surreptitiously did not feel like interrupting their conversation, they dug into it without qualms and Naia and Leon felt comfortable gorging in front of each other.

For a while, they just focused on their food. “This is nice.” Leon commented. He meant it. When he first saw Naia he had to admit she was pretty. Curvy, chubby, pretty — with her tall height, nice kind personality and seemingly less cocky attitude. Like, he was tired and he didn’t want anyone to treat him condescendingly or be fake sweet or cordial. And, she had been warm in the elevator. She was the complete opposite of Ada Wong. The woman he seemingly couldn’t stop pining for probably because he had met her when they were younger and always seem to run into each other in the seemingly worst situations. Also, it didn’t help he liked being protected by Ada and protecting her.

He knew he was considered attractive. He also was grateful he still had a head full of good hair. Of course, he was more rugged now then when he met Ada as a twenty or twenty-one year old and she had been a few years older. Ada called him now and then. They had hooked up more than once. They even made love last month. Yet. Yet, Leon knew he wasn’t liking their physical-only relationship. He was having trouble dating because of it. He may blame his schedule but he knew the truth. Ada had a hold of him because he was being silly enough to think perhaps they could have some sort of relationship. They did yet they were in two divides of the law. And, he felt Ada didn’t wanna settle down much or he had never fully asked her, for he had been content until recently with what they had and he had some flings too. There was a few months he had dated Helena Harper and the she wanted to move on from what happened with her sister so he decided to respect it even if he had felt he was a third wheel in something he was not so sure about. Helena and he still talked. At one point, he asked her again if she wanted to date. They had ended up in bed. Yet, they both felt strangely alienated. Their experiences, unlike with him and Ada, had gotten a wedge between them. It was last year and they remained friends.

Naia was a contrast to Ada. Hell, so was he. Naia seemed a bit more like him in some ways. Well, she seemed committed to her duties even if they lacked specifics. And, he could tell she was empathetic and kind when she had shared coffee with a Tyrant, _the_ Nemesis of all of them. Ada would shoot first and ask questions later. Well, in Ada’s line of duty it was survival and most people were attempting to eliminate her so it would be unfair to compare them. It was just he wanted someone who shared some of his ideals if possible. Sure, he felt Naia was kinder and probably more open minded than him. Perhaps, he needed this. Someone not corrupted by fighting BOWs their entire life. Someone who had hope in Tyrants and most of all other humans. Although, one of the reasons he had liked Ada was due to her lack of flirty with him and commanding presence. Back at the academy, almost every girl and even a few boys were after him. Yes, he understood his haircut and looks were considered attractive but he had been somewhat of a romantic at heart and so casual hookups were not always his cup of coffee. He had broken up with his girlfriend a week before Raccoon City happened and was initially glad in some ways he had been postponed on duty. The week was spent by drinking, jerking off, crying and eating ice cream. Then he met Ada. She made more than an impression on him and he enjoyed she was instructive of him and caring even when she needn’t be— more so, when he contemplated later on how she was a mercenary and could have left him for dead. So, like him, she had been smitten too. Yet, it was her nature not to confess these things easily. During lovemaking, she mouth many times, she loved him. He believed it. Even afterwards when they laid down she caressed him and repeated him. To verify to him, it was not only in a heat of passion she had spoken such words. He had deeply blushed even if he too tired at times with her enigmatic antics. It was in their privacy where she acted less composed and more than subtly affectionate towards him. He knew Ada was her professional pseudonym, her mercenary signature like a calling card and she had never disclosed her real name. Ever./

It was these details, which made him realise, maybe Ada may not stay with him. What they had was irreplaceable; something worth cherishing and a treasure. But she always kept him at arm’s length. At first, the secrecy was a mystery. It added to the attraction. He was so happy he could treat her as a partner to rely on. Such equals: she surpassing him at times and it did not intimidate it intrigued. After all, in his life, how many women could he find as her? How many people? Yet, now he wanted a suitable friendship and companionship. Something to hold, someone to hold, not afraid they will leave in the middle of the night or leave very soon. With Ada, things were not certain. This uncertainty now pervading into him like some unknown monster, which could rival and kill any horrendous BOW he had encountered before. It was comical even now human beings seem more tenuous to him than BOWs, whom he had to fight so rigorously. Human designs were trapped in an umbra of insidiousness or vagueness.

It seemed ambiguity could work as a more potent and lethal enemy.

With Naia, well, was he being cocky? Maybe a bit. He knew he had his looks, which most people enjoyed. Yet, he knew she was not going to be the type to only swoon on those alone. And, it made him more interested. Yet, he also knew she may not like him and he accepted it with good grace. What he desired now was a stable friendship. Yes, he had a sort of stability with Jill but he needed friends outside from the world of battle. People who would bring out the parts of him he has began to think he has lost. Claire helped with her duties in medical science yet he didn’t wish to be a burden on anyone either. Additionally, he was actually intimidated by Naia, despite her being gentle and sweet he noticed her fiercely academic side and her levels of perception and introspection. He understood Gresham had chosen well for she seemed highly intelligent.

Also, her name itself was nice ‘Naia’ rolled off the tongue sweetly. It was both warm and unique. Exotic (as some people considered Leon) yet also so worldly. Then he found out her middle name was Eve. She did look like the night; starry eyed and a moon core of resilience. Variations in her demeanour. All possible due to an invisible sun he only saw glimmers of and yearned to see more. It was the comfort in which they ate with slight conversation and could eat without pretence of some sort of gendered etiquette. They had hungered and flourished in biting into the steak, veggies and all. Nothing felt uncouth. It felt natural. It was what he wanted.

“So, your phone okay?”

As a cop and an agent, it became second nature to notice things. He wished he could reign it in more. However, it slipped out and he could not control it.

He was beginning to apologise as he saw her stiffen, “Uh, not yet no. You know it may get charged and be back to normal tomorrow.” Naia had not believed he would notice and cursed herself on forgetting he was a detective as well as an investigative agent.

“Is something wrong Naia?” it was her behaviour, he could read some sense of awkwardness in people and he felt protective of her all of a sudden. “I am sorry I don’t mean to pry but you can tell me if something is wrong.”

“No, nothing’s wrong.” she spoke quietly, hoping not to attract attention from any waiter, they could report anything, she got closer to him and Leon blushed because it seemed kissing proximity, “I gave my phone to someone.”

He blinked, “Really? I...don’t understand. To whom? You weren’t forced to give it up?” Leon kept his voice down and he also knew if things were monitored in the cafeteria Naia could get into trouble.

“No. I gave it to...you know…” she rubbed her head sheepishly.

Leon narrowed his eyes. Then widened them when it hit: “You gave your phone to _the_ Nemesis.”

“Yeah.” Naia laughed, the added seeing Leon’s shocked face, “Only for a while. I wanted to talk to him and tell me his schedule. So, I could meet with him again. You see he isn’t like any regular Tyrants so he doesn’t always know what they have him do so I just gave it to him. I am sure if he comes out on the courtyard I will get it back soon.”

“Oh, Naia.” Leon rested his head, Women, but he meant it more as a compliment, only he had seen women like her take an audacious risk and smile like this, then with some concern, “But what if he doesn’t? You won’t get your phone back.”

“I planned on that I will just ask Nian Zhen to get it for me and well I think he will berate me but won’t report me.” Naia smiled and shrugged, “See sealed tight in some corners.”

“Do you know if Nemesis knows how to use a phone?” Leon was curious now and Naia nodded.

“Yeah he is quite observant so he learned how to call and stuff. I think we won’t talk for long though I mean he can be monitored so it seems like he will just tell me if he comes out tomorrow in one of the same courtyards. Then we can meet.” Naia smiled.

“Just be careful okay. I don't want you to get into trouble.” Leon meant it, Naia was a nice person who seemed to have good intentions and he had been around the types of folks who work for these facilities and have no such shared interests.

Naia nodded.

Naia noticed it was already three hours. They had spent three hours in the Burgundy cafeteria, which should be called a restaurant. Leon and she finished and were ready to leave and the waiter gave them a smile as if already thinking of them as a couple. Naia blushed and Leon also shyly looked away.

“So, see you tomorrow Naia?”

“Yeah we can have dinner tomorrow again if you want. I am meeting up for coffee with Jill in the late afternoon. I can tell you if Gresham called me or something. Also I think I have some plans for tomorrow.”

“Cool. Yeah, maybe I will meet him tomorrow too.” Leon smiled, “It’s a date. See you tomorrow.”

She watched him as he left.

And, realised, he had not included Jill in their plans.

* * *

Nemesis had hid the phone pretty well. Two technicians came in and served him food of mashed carrots and potatoes. Some water, some juice and some jelly with vitamins. They even gave him his pills.

“I bet he wouldn’t mind feeding him.”

One of them laughed and the other snorted along. Nemesis growled. Immediately, the one who made the joke looked at him, “Yeah, I...sorry…” he actually squeaked. Nemesis looked at his strange behaviour and wondered what was wrong.

“It’s okay.”

The one squeaked again hearing his gruff voice. Almost falling down. Nemesis did not know if she should _pleased_ or somewhat _worried_ by this sudden change of attitude towards him.

“So, like you not gonna attack us, right?” The other one asked.

Nemesis gave a look which was one of disgust and ‘are you shitting me?’ as if a bio organic weapon as himself who was a prized asset even in the 90s would get kicks by hurting thin technicians who look like they were just out of adolescence and into their twenties.

“Hey sorry my guy.” He talked again, “Name’s Hayden. Hayden Palmer. This is Lewis. We do serve you food more often these days so we better get acquainted.”

“You did not care before.” Nemesis drank a bit of the water.

“Yeah man. We didn’t but you got em beaker. Made him piss off an anything.” Hayden looked excited, “Is it true? You made the shithead called Dustin piss himself?”

Nemesis looked, “I don’t know his name.”

“It’s Dustin and he is a major A.” Lewis commented, “Glad you sized him up.”

“I don’t wanna be fed by _you_.” Nemesis sarcastically spoke, “You _smell_ dirty.”

Hayden started laughing and Lewis looked defensive, “He dude!”

“See even the Nemesis can smell you I told you not taking a shower for four days is gonna cause that!”

Nemesis looked curious, “Why are you not cleaning yourself?”

“I got a cold and our water is not heating up. We complained. You know dude you get better treatment than us.” Lewis folded his arms, “I mean I know we do a lot of the grunt work but we can’t fix the pipes.”

Nemesis felt basically _bad_ , “I am sorry.”

Lewis looked at him, wide eyed, “Nah, it’s dude! You cool. We actually told Dustin too and he told us to go fuck ourselves.”

Nemesis was started to hate this Dustin more and more. “Anyway Nemesis, you did us a solid making him piss himself.” Hayden winked.

“Hey Nemesis, how come you don’t eat solid foods?” Lewis and Hayden actually got _closer_ , more close than they ever had before.

“I don’t like eating much anyway and my jaw hurts. Maybe that will change soon.” He ate a bit of the food and looked at them.

“Aww man, sorry man.” Lewis commented and actually patted his arm.

“Hey Nemesis, what do you think of Foe?” Hayden asked.

“She seems like a lethal weapon.” Nemesis answered as he ate.

“No, I mean like.” Hayden questioned, stopping a bit.

“Oh yes, she is also quite, what do you humans say, sexy.” Nemesis ate some of the jelly.

“See, _our_ Nemesis has good taste.” Hayden elbowed Lewis playfully. Nemesis blinked. _Our Nemesis?_

“So, you like Foe.” Nemesis actually started teasing them.

“Hell yeah, Nemmy, she is so fucking cute, like even if she is a NE T-type. I would give my left ball to sleep with her.” Lewis laughed. _Nemmy? Hmmm, only Nian Zhen called me that at times_.

“What about you Nemmy? You like any girls, or guys?” Hayden's eyes twinkled.

“You want him to like you.” Lewis snickered and Hayden slapped his arm.

“Well, you guys are _cute_.” Nemesis commented. He meant it. They were pretty good looking young men.

Both Lewis and Hayden blushed. Nemesis sensed a bit of pride he could have the effect on good looking humans. “But,” he added, “I haven’t met many female Tyrants aside Foe. I think I seen one called Vanessa. She is a Steel Tyrant, right? But I haven’t talked to her.”

“Oh yeah, Vanessa. I think she and I have a date.” Lewis jumped then quickly, “Don’t tell anyone Nemmy!”

Nemesis nodded in confidence. “Any human women Nemmy?” Hayden asked curiously.

Nemesis rubbed his head making both of them squeal like fanboys, “Hey, Nemmy, you do huh?!” Lewis looked, “Hey is it Byron?!”

Nemesis shook his head. He didn’t feel safe to tell them about Jill. Or even anyone else. Especially, what if Naia...got into trouble.

Then there was a vibration in his arm. Everyone froze. Nemesis looked the other way and started eating his food again. _Oh shit_.

“Uh, Nemmy, does your arm vibrate?” Lewis looked at his arm.

“Maybe. Time to time. Tentacle sensitivity.” Nemesis bullshitted as he ate his food.

“That uh, sounds like a phone…” they both looked at him curious and a bit taken aback as Hayden pointed it out.

“Oh shit Nemmy! Did you jack Dustin’s phone too! Sick!” Lewis was super excited.

“No. No.” Nemesis saw his excitement and felt if he didn’t explain it may get bad. “It’s a girls’ phone…” he muttered, putting his plastic food plate down and plastic spoon.

They saw he was being defensive so Hayden asked, “How come?”

“She gave it to me so that I could call her.”

Nemesis shyly looked down. He was embarrassed. He had no idea Naia would call him now of all times. And, he did not know why he was confessing to them.

“Wow, like seriously, is she _hitting_ on you?” Lewis looked impressed, “Dude you got game don’t you?” Hayden smiled.

Nemesis rubbed his head, “I guess we are friends.”

“You know we are supposed to monitor you so go ahead and enjoy your call Nemmy. If you want us to return the phone to her we will. Don’t worry. You made Dustin pee himself. We got you.” Hayden winked and Lewis smiled as they left.

Nemesis blinked as the phone vibrated after a while. He had _only_ talked to Naia. Had roared at someone and suddenly he was being a bit more _talkative_. Maybe, Naia was having a good influence on him.

“Hello.”

“Nemesis I am sorry are you okay?”

“Yes, there were some techs around so…”

“Oops.”

“No, it is okay. I think I am going to the courtyard tomorrow. So, I will return the phone then.”

“Thanks.” Naia laughed, and he smiled, “It will be good to see you again.”

“And, get your phone back.” Nemesis teased.

“Yeah, that too.” Naia chuckled.

“How was your evening?” On a serious note, “Did you enjoy dinner….” he sighed, “With Leon?” he didn’t understand why it hurt a bit. Probably, because he missed her already and wanted to spend more time with her.

“Yeah, it was good. We gonna meet up tomorrow too.” Naia says it, “Though, I guess we are becoming friends. Like you and me!”

Her enthusiasm made him smile, “Maybe he is hitting on you.” he just said it.

“Nemesis!” she actually playfully shouted back. Had she known Nemesis was this teasing and playful?

“Well, I am glad you have a trustworthy human friend.” he meant that, “You seem to not think he is bad.” Nemesis was still getting used to talking.

“Yeah Leon is an agent and he is pretty well trained but has a good heart.”

“Agent with Jill?”

“No, he is in another agency, FBI.”

“Oh, what is the difference?”

“Good question. I guess BSAA is more focused on bio-terrorism and FBI also handles other matters.”

“Oh. Makes some sense. Like Tyrant classes.” Nemesis pondered on it.

“Yeah, a bit like that.” Naia loved the analogy.

“I will talk to you tomorrow?” Nemesis didn’t wanna talk long on phone. He looked and could see Lewis and Hayden looking like fangirls on the observation glass and he wanted to laugh at them. “I think Techs are getting happy I talk to you.” Nemesis explained the situation and Naia laughed.

“Hey, at least you are making friends.”

Nemesis smiled. She has a good heart. Good person.

They said goodbye. Nemesis walked past after finishing his food and pills to the hallways. He had access to some places and Lewis and Hayden were okay seeing him go. Frankly, no one bothered him as he didn’t do anything out of protocol. Even if he made Dustin pee himself no one had asked him why. Not yet anyways.

He went to an open verandah allowed for Tyrants as himself and sighed. “Stars.” he looked at the sky and almost burst out laughing. At one point, in his life, all he could scream was that word more properly. Like a mantra. And obsession. Now STARS did not even exist. He outlived them just not the way Umbrella had planned. Even Jill outlived STARS. He wondered if it made her said. He wondered if she already went to bed and envied her bedsheets.

He absent-mindedly was looking at Naia’s phone. Her lock-screen, which she had disabled for him, was a painting, her home-screen seemed like a cool game character, a guy who was wearing a helmet. Nice taste. He was looking at apps and clicked on ‘gallery’ — then realised he probably shouldn’t. Human beings treated their phones as detachable body parts like he treated his tentacles. But he liked some of the pictures. One of them had a nice looking brown and cream coloured cat and another had an ash cat. Nemesis was liking these playful looking cats. Then there was Naia with a dark blonde hair woman with pink and blue highlights. Then there was Naia in class studying a book and in a library studying books and Naia getting some coffee in a coffee shop with said blonde girl.

The pictures were warm.

Then there was Naia wearing a green swimsuit.

Nemesis found the stirring again. And licked his jaw a bit without knowing then felt kind of weird doing it. Her sweet fat and nice legs and breasts were so _right_ in the swimsuit. He noticed it was at the beach and saw the humans around him show some pics to each other (as they thought he didn’t get shit) at the beach and kissing and all of it.

“Hey, that’s Naia. Where did you get that?”

Nemesis swiftly turned around and growled, hiding the phone. To see, someone actually taller than him.

It was an Elite Tyrant

With a nice enough expression though frowning,

“I am going to ask you to give it back. If you stole it.”

Nemesis looked up and growled, “I didn’t steal it. Naia gave it to me so she can talk to me.”

“And, to see her pictures?” The Elite Tyrant challenged.

“No. I didn’t really mean to.” Nemesis flustered, “But I will tell her I did!”

“Well, that’s good then.” The Elite Tyrant smiled, “Something tells me you are not lying. Naia is nice.” Then he laughed, “You are Nemesis right? The legend, the first of the NE-a T types? Wow, so cool. I finally get to meet you. I mean you hardly come out.”

Nemesis blinked. He has never spoken to an Elite Tyrant before. And, most of them did not seem amicable when he passed them. “You are?”

“Slevin!”

Nemesis blinked, he was sure they had batch numbers, “Slevin?”

“Yeah, I am 077 but Naia gave me a name. Slevin. I am keeping it!”

Nemesis now was jealous. Naia gave him a name? And, Slevin seems nicer than Nemesis in some ways, he knew Nemesis meant someone’s opposition. Though, without STARS, whose opposition was he? He wondered who the hell named him and wanted to wring his neck!

“You know the name comes from a movie with a dude who is considered good looking named Josh Hartnett. He is a human actor.”

_If things didn’t get worse_ , Nemesis had to admit, Slevin looked pretty handsome and had a nice defined jaw and everything. “That is…” Nemesis wanted a word to not knee himself, “Interesting.”

“You know Naia has a class for us tomorrow. It’s the first one. Maybe you should come. You should ask her. I hear you only train Draugen. And, I know that can be tiring. I am one of his roommates and he gets into fights with 089 am 022 a lot.”

Nemesis had not known of Draugen’s living conditions. He had presumed he had stayed with Nergel and Foe. “Oh, so he stays with you?”

Slevin nodded. “Think about what I said, okay?”

Slevin waved as he left and Nemesis waved too.

_I like him, he seems less arrogant than Draugen_ , Nemesis looked outside for a bit before going back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, the board game did exist I think Toy Biz got the 'X' name from that too. 
> 
> So, hope you guys liked it! Please comment it does motivate me! See ya next time!


	6. Conscience Nudged

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well hope you like this one too!

**Conscience Nudged**

Draugen felt the slap.

Even if it was by a human. It stung.

The impact was hard. Meant to deliver a message. Meant to shock and pain a Tyrant more ways than one. It was meant to _humiliate_ as well. And, it did it _perfectly_. After all, he heard a snicker from few of the lab techs and knew what happened was not at all good. There seemed no appeasing the man who was angry. His usual talkativeness muted; his shoulders slack, more so out of comprehension than defeat. He muttered an apology…again. For he knew, an apology was a form of negotiation here. The human held the cards. Divined them as he saw fit. Draugen could not compete. Ironically, BOWs like himself, still required humans, even techs, for maintenance, nourishment – in this way wild animals were spared, given clemency out of the invasive Anthropocene. The apology, was met with another slap, coarser and firmed, tinged with an instruction manual meant to defy insubordination.

Draugen bowed his head further. Any further, it would seem like supplication, an idol to be ordained with salutations from some mutated _creature_. The word ‘creature’ freed and damned him. As a ‘creature’ human protocols need not be utterly memorised by him. As a ‘creature’ he was damned still to listen to such protocols if by any means he was a cause of interruption of them. Human tidings still focused a lot on his life and he knew it. Draugen still remained in silence. Other muttered, mostly watched, they could not all stay to see the unfolding of this risqué ‘entertainment.’ A sort of synecdoche of a gladiator’s moment in battle yet augmented with another form of dread. Draugen knew physicality would not offer respite. Even if he could kill the bearer of the slap; the problem here was he had erred. An error, which did not suit his model or other NE-a types. Even Nergel and Foe seemed curious if not disappointed by his misgivings. No confession was procured from him yet and he offered none in his defence aside the solemn apologies.

“You stupid… _prototype_ …” he spat it out, “I should ban your good food and porn for more than a month. _You_ …” he was still restrained, “You couldn’t have fucked up, better could you?!” and Dr. Alaric Gresham threw a hot coffee kettle next to him at Draugen’s face. It stung, as the black coffee slithered down his face, added to feeling singed he felt the humiliation creep up. Draugen was quiet. Remembering, it was Gresham who gave him the scar. When he once was loafing around in training and not doing much. He pontificated how important his compliance was and when Draugen was still being a bit tired and sluggish he took his signature pen, made from a fang of a Licker, and slashed it against him. The point was: don’t ever fuck with me. Ever since, Draugen knew, Gresham could be sinister and dangerous. Did not care if a Tyrant could make him a pancake. For he too, knew how to scar and berate Tyrants as any other dehumanised personnel he worked with. Gresham was a lead in this facility for a reason. How he chastised him now was both a lesson and a performance. People, mutants and anything in between should be made to _fear_ him.

Draugen shuddered seeing Gresham pace and look messy, which was not at all his usual mode. He know his break in demeanour caused by the Tyrant would aggravate and infuriate Gresham more. Draugen swallowed. He was not keen to take punishments from this man. Last time, Draugen’s tentacles, its sensitive places, were shocked and so were his privates. It was made to humiliate him. Afterwards, he still remembered what Gresham had done. A part of him was also dedicated in a way to pleasing Gresham. The man knew things and had power so covetable. It sizzled like egg to the saucepan. And imagery of an egg made him realise he was starving. After all, battle could release massive amounts of adrenalin. Aftereffects could be lingering hunger.

“I am sorry, Dr. Gresham.” He muttered again, another hunger to _please_ , to mitigate. It was a pleading emboldened by his need to decimate any severe punishments.

“An apology. Again.” Gresham scoffed, “What good would it do? Will you plead to the governor?”

“I would. I would do more of his missions. Harder missions. Get you more money.” Draugen knew currency and commerce were essential. The computation was not all difficult.

“Such an exquisite mercenary.” Gresham laughed. Sick and cold. Yet, also a kindle of being _impressed_ by Draugen’s persistence to amend the situation. “Perhaps, if I tell the governor your need to repent. Hmmm, it could work. Though we are still in check for that commanding general’s medical bill.”

Nian Zhen came up, “If I may Alric.”

“Oh Nian Zhen, you aren’t drunk today.”

“Fuck off for a minute and listen.” Draugen smiled at the insult so did Gresham, “Look, I know Draugen did bad. I know he didn’t do right. But let’s get him cleaned up and let him attend Naia’s class today. Maybe, he needs to chill out a bit too. We been working him hard and he needs time to detox from all the highs of battle and all those fights.”

Gresham drank the remnants of the coffee from his mug. They were in a small lab outside Tyrion. It was fully white plated and actually was used to help charge electric bioweapons and use solar UV rays as a form of medical procedure on Ivy Zombies. The environs were clean but threatening. It worked well to have Draugen there. Byron had stepped in almost unnoticed during Draugen getting chastised. She did not seem to give a fuck about him. She brought in someone _familiar_ if not known to Draugen personal. The Ivy Zombie waddled in and looked a bit dazed. Byron yelled at it to pay attention and was doing something to them. The zombie muffled noises when a UV ray cut into them.

It was almost like it was _sobbing_.

Draugen actually showed concern. Who was it? Or, was it a he? Draugen was not sure on the specifications. A guard pushed out the Ivy Zombie when it looked exhausted after the UV laser pain was put to work on it. It was unceremonious and somewhat _cruel_. Draugen shuddered. He wondered what the Ivy Zombie had done to deserve such a treatment. Was it a punishment? It did not seem so. Byron looked at a vial of pulsating purple liquid and told her assistant, who happened to be Dustin, that the new UV laser pen was working like a _charm_.

The whole exchange made Draugen disturbed to say the least.

“Wait, what is wrong with the particular Ivy Zombie?”

A voice broke out. Nian Zhen, Gresham and Draugen looked a very beautiful woman with green eyes and deep mocha skin seem to look at Byron with a sense of confusion, “It does not seem like the usual ones. Wait, I am reading the reports. It says here the pronouns can be ‘they’ or ‘he.’ Okay, his musculature seems quite unique and so does his bulbs in some places. What are they being treated for? Any aberrations? Do we need to help structure him again in Gerechtslinde? I am sorry Dr. Byron, but they look pretty curious. So, I am asking. He does not even seem to have a batch name.”

“Oh, it is not necessarily part of our wider structure. That one is a _reject_.” Byron specified while looking at the samples and then smiling at her, “Don’t worry too much Dr. Axton.”

The scientist looked at the other, “A reject? Are there many of those?”

“Not really. We farm our Ivy Zombies quite well.” Byron gave Dustin some vials.

“So, he is a _unique_ one. An _outlier_.”

Her words annoyed Byron who looked at her, “Dr.Axton, refrain from using such terms for something already classified as a ‘reject.’ Its failure to bind with the tree was proof of its fatal flaw. We farm our Ivy Zombies to be worker bees of sorts. One that cannot assimilate; it is best to exterminate.”

“But, we took samples from them.” Draugen and the others noticed Axton’s persistence. “I mean. We haven’t exterminated them. They have some _worth_ then.”

“Bulbs is a good enough harvest for samples.” Dustin spoke and was eyed by Byron who hated the interruption and he was short of squeaking.

“Bulbs?”

“Yes, the scientists her gave it a name. After all, if not an honorary batch number a sort of marker would be needed.” Byron seemed to fix the UV pen; it was sleek, it was also fattened with cool silvery metal, prehensile in some ways too, “Aside the reject is a good testing ground for our new cutting-edge UV pens. We need to work on them as future treatments to the Ivy Zombies would require it. This one may be a draft but an impeccable one if I may say so.”

“But that means,” Axton looked slightly horrified, “The pen can cause burns too and not stable enough for live testing.” She looked at her notes, “It says here that Bulbs have some wounds which have not been tended to as of yet. He may be a T-virus imbued plant-humanoid specimen but failure to cauterise wounds may have infections on such beings as well. Or, are you hoping to study such,” she paused as if selecting her words wisely, “Phenomenon.”

“Dr. Frieda Axton,” Everyone noticed she almost cooed, “You know Bulbs is free to come to us if it has any sort of medical issues. Besides, we do test it.”

Draugen by now knew it would not be the case. Everyone was treating the Ivy Zombie as shit over here except the one called Frieda Axton. “Well, if it does bother you. I may check up on Bulbs.” Frieda held her ground, “I mean even as a scientific curiosity they could be useful.”

There was a quiet kind of pause for most people in the lab. Byron’s expression was unreadable but her eyes seared a bit. A person challenging her analysis so openly was not to her comfort. Yet, the initial displeasure dissipated, a smile, a line quivered with some cruelty, only for a moment, Draugen noticed, could be missed and replaced with one of measured patience, “Of course, Dr. Axton, what sort of supervisor would I be if I do not let my subordinates dally in their foray a bit?” A perceptive person would see it was a slight in some respects, like she was channelling Gresham, “However, do not get too carried away from your job particulars. Also, if we find anything lacking in Bulbs you may be reprimanded for not settling it with utmost care.”

The seed was sown for a chastisement yet Freida challenged it head on, “Of course, Dr. Byron, you will see nothing is short in my work for I had planned on you reviewing my care of Bulbs as it is the form of exceptional guidance I will be in need of.”

Dustin looked a bit shocked. Nian Zhen looked too. Draugen tilted his head along with Gresham. Byron seemed to shudder slightly. Was it annoyance? Anger? Both? – she was caught off-guard. “Why…” she now chooses her words, “Of course, Frieda. You have…” she seemed reluctant to say it, “My confidence in the matter.”

“Well, wasn’t _that_ entertaining.”   
  
Draugen now focused again to Gresham who snickered. “Hmmm, like that woman, would give Byron a hard on perhaps.” Draugen looked a bit surprised though he had come to know Gresham’s subtle intensity in his choice of speech, it still intrigued how casually he spoke them, without much care of their reception or rather with a way for them to be received in an alarmed manner, it was a useful _tactic_ he had to admit, cunning as always, “Nian Zhen’s task goes. You may not eat until I say so. You need to get a shower and stop looking like a wreck.” Gresham looked at Draugen’s tattered and singed coat, the coffee still dipping slight in the crevices of his ever smiling teeth and face, he also smelled of gunpowder, metals, wood splinters, corpse and burnt flesh, boiled on blood and had vestiges of said rotting flesh of others on his clothes and tentacles, his boots caked with blood and grim and mud, his own blood leaked a bit from wounds in his limbs and abdomen along his chest. There was also a deep bleeding gash on his left thigh. “You may drink water but no caffeine. Get ready and give me a report later on. You can at least sit through a damn class without fucking up I am sure. Also, your remedial courses are also there at night time. Don’t miss anything. Your academic education is important for you too to become a better weapon.”

Draugen wanted to curse under his breath. _No peace for me huh?_ And he knew he was hungry as fuck too. _Well, I am trained for this_. It still did not make him feel better. He knew part of his mission was a failure due to his error. He growled under his breath surreptitiously as he did not want another major headache of a correctional technique handed down to him. He nodded respectfully to Gresham and Nian Zhen, and others and was leaving.

Nian Zhen caught him at the door a bit, “Hey big guy. Why did you do it?” Draugen stared, something in him wanted to snap, he breathed, he was NOT in the mood, “I mean. You like doing nasty kills I know. But you are also well, you know good at following your orders. And, Nemesis has been also helping you out.” He hated the mentorship, he didn’t need old cock, “What _happened_? You can tell me, you know.”

And he snapped, “Bitch please,” he silently growled, “Go fuck around therapist somewhere else. Maybe down another bottle, you drunken fuck.” Nian Zhen looked shocked but he just sighed and shook his head with a sadness coming over him.

Draugen walked out in fury. _Should I have said that?_ Then he shook it off. When he went to one of the cleaning labs he just ripped off his clothes to shreds. Someone whistled, as if he was doing a striptease. He snarled in response and let the hot water relax his bones and muscles. He closed his eyes. Stifling the hunger in him he looked down at the tiles as the blood and dirt and the ruins of the battlefield washed away. He sighed again feeling relaxed and actually wanted to sleep in his bed or in his pod but knew he has tasks to do. No rest for a BOW like him today. His thigh singed a bit under water pressure and he shuddered recalling how someone got a poisoned machete, a close-range prototype weapon, a blade with grilled and hooked edges, to try to hack away at its his tentacles even if they could probably regrow the poison may hurt and even make some of them rot, he dodged but his thigh got hit and maybe even infected. Well, he was pushing through, though he may need some meds as the agitation could clearly also be an effect alongside exhaustion.

“What the fuck happened here?”

Draugen looked around and saw a tech looking at his ripped tatters of his once clothes. “Wow, this was expensive, though PU.” He brushed his nose and let the ripped cloth fall down and crackled his neck and shoulders, “Well, time to see what we can get for you in the clothes rack. Hope they have good NE T-types clothes. Though, we have to make sure some of them are for you. As you are a bit taller than usual NE T types being a NE-v T type.” He was looking at the closet stacked with limiter trench coats, gloves and boots, looking at his discarded pair with gloved fingers so he may discern the size. Draugen ignored him. The whistling tech left the room with a clipboard but handing the tech rummaging one as well telling him he is going for a smoke break and the other nodded. There weren’t any other Tyrants around as the tech looked at sizes and colours, limiters and boots. One NE-a T Type walked in and leered at him. Draugen gave a snap of teeth, which frazzled the tech and the NE-a T Type and he said ‘excuse me’ to the tech and got a coat leaving with a ‘fuck you’ finger at him.

Draugen just was looking for a towel as he was dripping as the shower ended. “Hey wait, big guy!” he wanted to snarl, “Lemme get a towel or hand you one. I can’t stay behind and clean this up for too long.” Draugen took a towel roughly and sat on an examination table. The tech brought some clothes and started doing a standard medical routine with their high-tech machinery. They had some digital pads talking of wounds and how to treat them and the tech seemed somewhat used to it. Though some wounds were deeper so he administered morphine dosages after reading a chart on an iPad, trying to ascertain a dose for the suitable range of breadth and width and depth of cut. He administered boosters and other Tyrant based meds based on looking at damage cycle reports, “God, you look sturdy and some of these bruises could crack a tank like an egg.” Hearing about eggs didn’t help. “Well, I am so experienced in this but I been having some practice on NE- Types so that is a good calling. My friend will come over and we can patch you up both together in a better way. Though I think I am enough – holy shit…’ he stopped at the thigh wound, “That looks brutal. I need a doctor for that.” He contacted a doctor via iPad and talked to him for a few minutes then came back, “Well, the doc said you need to come back for a physical later on them thigh wound. She told me it is a new prototype weapon called Belladonna Blade though it has more types of poison in it than Belladonna. I am meant to cauterise the wound with a UV scalpel and administer a plant and lizard based antivenom. This may sting so keep still okay.”

Draugen’s breath hitched as he saw the scalpel of light close his deep wound and then he got administered with an epi pen type device of the antivenoms and nutrient steroid boosters to help his Tyrant body. “There good as new. Well, at least for now. The doc, she said you should come over tomorrow to see there is no muscle atrophy and as long as you do not over exert yourself today physically you will be fine. They may make you do warm ups tomorrow. I may be there so we can well you know see if you still can get them punches in.”

“Would you shut the fuck up!”

Draugen scream was akin to a roar and the tech actually fell down on the floor and scrambled. Looking scared as anything, “Draugen, what’s wrong with you?”

The NE-v T Type got up angrily and snarled at the tech, “You can go on for hours! With your soft human mouth and lips! I don’t have the fucking time!” he says it and a lot of spit lands on the tech;s face who cringes and looks really scared.

“Draugen…calm down…” he mouths quietly.

“Just stop talking.” Draugen snarls. He was so angry. He didn’t want to be but he was.

And, then _he_ came up close and grabbed his neck and Draugen was surprised as he looked at the teeth as his exposed. Near his throat.

“What the – what the fuck you doing?!”

“I can ask you…” Nemesis bared his teeth at him, “The same thing.”

“Lewis are you okay?!” another tech comes in and helps his friend up who has Draugen’s spit on his face and looks close to sobbing, nope, is sobbing, “Draugen,” the other tech looks at him accusingly, “You can’t do this just because you fucked up a mission, okay!”

Draugen saw the tech crying quietly. And, deep inside. He felt complete _shame_. _What have I done?_ Nemesis snarled at him, making him change focus, “Get the fuck out of here.” Nemesis threatened, “Before I forget I am supposed to be your mentor.”

Draugen wore some pants and took his other clothes and boots out of the room, deciding to dress up outside as he walked around.

Nemesis was furious. Yet, he calmed down as he saw Lewis cry and Hayden pick him up and he helped. “Are you okay, Lewis?” He wasn’t allowing _his_ humans. Possibly his _friends_ being threatened. He had walked in seeing Lewis squirm and immediately went for Draugen’s throat. Instinct perhaps.

Lewis was shaking and Hayden rubbed his back. “We helped…” he sobbed, “We helped Draugen before. He has never acted this way. Arrogant. Yeah. Oh God…” he was crying with closed eyes, “I don’t why but I thought he was gonna kill me…” he started crying harder.

_Is this what Jill felt like?_ Nemesis was shocked and silent. _Did she feel like this but put on a brave face? I know I was told to kill her…but I never asked what she felt when I was going to harm her…this looks_ ….he sees Lewis cry, _Fucking terrible…_

Suddenly Lewis held him.

Nemesis was taken aback by the hug.

Hayden smiled as Lewis cried in his body, “Thank you Nemmy, you are my Knight in shining armour!” Lewis laughed and cried now, in relief.

“That you are Nemmy. You are quite the heroic knight.” Hayden winked. Nemesis actually blushed. _A hero? Fucking me?_

He then ruffled Lewis’s hair and held him. Liking the hug and reciprocating it with his gestures. _This is nice._ He smiled as Hayden also hugged him and he held the two humans. _This is very nice._

He liked their scent and the way they were hugging him. They were all warm and cute. Though he looked at Hayden, “What do you mean _failed_ a mission, Hayden?”

They all stopped their hug and Hayden explained, “Well, not necessarily the whole mission. I bumped into a NE Type outside and he was grumbling and when I asked him what was wrong he told me Draugen was giving attitude as he fucked up and attacked a governor’s ally in a war-like battle in Eastern Europe. The guys limbs are broken so much they may hardly able to fix it and he is in ICU. No one knows why Draugen went and did that. No one specifically asked him either. Well, he apologised and Gresham apparently also smashed a coffee kettle on his face. Like, I know Draugen is cocky and arrogant but he hardly fucks a mission like this. Yeah, he has had complaints of lack of coordination, overuse of ammunition, overkill but this hasn’t ever been well something he would do. His modus operandi is to like be nasty and make a mess in battle from the medical reports I read saying why he is always battered and the blood is not always his. But, this was kinda, well not his style.”

“This may reflect badly on me.” Nemesis sighed, “I am his mentor. Taking it out on Lewis was _stupid_.” He stressed it, “I been frustrated. Didn’t act like that.” He remembered how he ended lives in the way of his mission but never took a life, which simply annoyed, his aim had been STARS. Anyone else who got in the way was well. Fair enough game at the time. “Though, I wondered what happened as well.”

“well, Nemmy, we can talk on it later. Aren’t we here for something else?” Hayden winked.

Nemesis smiled.

* * *

Draugen punched lightly a bookcase and slumped down. A couple of books fell on his head. He wanted to scream. He was at the Adamantium Library, the only one for authorised use by Tyrants. He wanted to get away and he needed some time to kill. Until that stupid class by the one called Naia started. Well, he didn’t mind meeting curvy teacher though he was mainly interested in taking a small nap if possible. Draugen still was restless. He caressed his thigh. It was itching which was not a bad sign. If he noticed anything out of the ordinary it was his own job to report it to the medical staff as they only wanted controlled infections in the facility not some random shit around. He just hoped those beakers wouldn’t be interested in studying the shit and he did not wanna be a guinea pig. Though being a prototype has its uses. He would be somewhat protected. An asylum from any other course as he was valuable enough.

Though he was feeling ashamed on how he acted with the one called Lewis. Even Nian Zhen. He shouldn’t let his feelings interfere. He wanted to humiliate them because he was humiliated. Though Nian Zhen was kind and courteous and pretty respectful of every Tyrant he interacted with. And, Lewis was an underweight, lanky human, a tech who was meticulously helping him, even helped his thigh wound and he was repaying him with what? Venom. _God, don’t start acting like typical messed up humans who bite the hand that feeds them_ , Draugen snorted in self-annoyance. He did really feel ashamed. And the shame was overriding his need for sleep. He growled and looked at the books that fell on him.

One of them had a long vertical line, followed a smaller one and another longer line on the spine, it looked like a notebook or diary, “Oh.” He knew the mark, “So the yellow pages huh?” he knew the humans once had called an info deck something similar and the Tyrants now used as a slang for, “Well, any hook-ups listed?” Draugen looked inside and saw that time tables were scribbled in, shelf numbers too. Many Tyrants used the library for fucking and would come in accordingly and scribble when they would be available where. It was something to do to feel good and pass the time. Sometimes, you may meet someone you know or like. Of course, you can politely reject someone to. No hassle really. “Wow, that Tyrant R from 053’s room is listed here a lot this week.” Draugen chuckled, “Maybe he is really feeling it these days.”

“Oh no. I try to get rid of those…” a small voice spoke but then caught themselves.

Draugen looked up and saw a tall enough girl with long limbs, long haired in a braid, beautiful black eyes and deep skin that was well, glowing in the sunlight and lights of the library. He had never seen her before. She took a step back. And she was starting to leave.

He made a move and she suddenly squealed, her voice resounding in a seemingly empty library. A noise followed somewhere else. Draugen knew it was the sound of two Elite Tyrants having a climax somewhere though one of them asked: “Who was that?” to the squeal they heard. Draugen hoped they did not come here. After all, he did bad already with Lewis and he did not mean to scare her. She looked, well he had been in the part of the world, Sri Lankan, though her eyes and slanted nose, looked East Asiatic so he wasn’t sure who she was and where she was from. Her scent felt familiar like a scent of dust in books long forgotten, traces more or less more than something concrete. Though he had never truly wondered who it really belonged to. She seemed part of the Adamantium library like she belonged here.

“Wait, I am not trying…” he explained, “To hurt you.”

She looked at him, “Just my luck.” She picked herself up and the books she seemed to be carrying, “God, I hate being noticed.”

“Wait. Do you work with Stuart?” Draugen asked. He was seemingly the head and only librarian aside techs who helped with book assortment and shelving without much questions. He hadn’t seen anyone else aside Stuart, who pretty much knew some people used the library as a fuck zone and was reading books.

“Would you mind.” She looked annoyed, “Picking those books up. Please.” She pointed at the books that had fallen on him.

“Oh, yeah, sure.” He quickly scrambled to pick the books up, _Well, she did say please_. The young woman then snatched the notebook away. “Hey.”

“What?” she looked at him, a bit annoyed. _Wow, is she grumpier than me?_

“Like, that’s…” Draugen pointed.

“I know.” But then she let go, “On second thought.” She gave it to him and used hand sanitizer, “Don’t know who touched it in what state.”

Draugen laughed, “There are human names here too you know.”

She blushed, “Well, whatever. I am leaving.”

“Hey.”

“What?”

“Like, are you a librarian?”

“Yeah. One of the lucky people who handles this place.” She sighed, “With Stuart. Though I don’t like to be seen or heard.”

“Why are you an assassin who uses paper to kill tagets.” Draugen joked.

“Hardy Har Har.” She replied.

“Well, what don’t you like being seen?”

“I don’t like talking to people much anyways.”

“But this is a Tyrant library.” Draugen spoke.

“Yeah, good. Most Tyrants who do sense me or notice don’t give a rat’s ass. Unless well, they wanna…hook up and I think they know I don’t as I just shuffle books. Some say ‘hi’ and ask the same questions as you. Though not many.” She held her books and didn’t look at Draugen much.

“So, am I your longest conversation since that Ice Age?” Draugen grinned.

“What? You are not funny. Cut it out.” She looked at him and his grin dropped.

“Like you are?” Draugen looked at her.

“I am a librarian. I ain’t paid to be funny.” She was walking away and he followed.

“You are paid to be a grouch?”

“Librarians are known for that. Part of the charm.” Her braid trailed behind as she walked. Like a tail Draugen noticed.

“Well, you don’t have to be. Grouchy.”

“Why, for you?” she sneered.

God, she sounds a bit like me, Draugen blinked, “Hey, fuck you man.”

“You wish.” She snickered making him mad.

He actually pulled her braid and she bumped into him, “Stop walking away.” She looked livid and pulled at his tentacle, “Hey!” he was surprised when she smacked his face with his _own_ tentacle. “Okay, sorry for pulling your hair.” He raised his huge hands up as she looked mad.

“What the hell you want?” she looked at him bored. Which was saying something.

“Hey anti-social, it’s normal courtesy to introduce yourselr when you meet someone. Humans kinda invented the rule.” Then sneered, “Must be fucked having a Tyrant teach you manners.”

“Hey!” she looked at him as he snickered, “You are one lousy asshole. Only coming here like three times a month to get laid.” Draugen looked aghast.

“Oh you saw?” Draugen smiled a bit, “And what you think?”

She looked at him, “You ejaculate too quick from how you come out like ten minutes later.”

Draugen got beet red, “You saying I am bad at sex?”

“Who knows?” she laughed.

“It’s a hookup not a fuckathon.” Draugen argued, “And, none of them are that interesting.”

“Okay. Whatever. Are we done? I gotta shelf these.” She pointed.

“I am Draugen –“

“I know Molty Golden Boy.” She chuckled.

“What?”

“That’s what most Tyrants call you behind your back.”

“What?! Those motherfuckers!” Draugen looked mad but then looked at her, “And?”

“And?”

“Your name human. Etqiuette remember?”

“Why?”

“Okay, hi “why.’” He waves.

“Hardy Har Har.” She looks and then sighs, “It’s Kontane. Not Connie. Maybe Ko. But usually, Kontane. Kontane Vidane.”

“Oh, hey. Kontane.” Draugen smiled, “So are you Sri Lankan? You look from the region.”

“Yeah I am. I immigrated here like for university. Around some years ago.”

“So, how do you like it? I mean how come you are here now?”

“What is this? Twenty questions?”

“Maybe thirty. You know Tyrant rules apply and I am Molty Golden Boy.” Draugen laughed.

“God, stop talking.”

He recollected he was saying the same a few minutes ago. All Lewis was doing was what he was, being efficient even friendly, “Why Kontane? You don’t like talking?”

“I…” she seemed surprised, “I don’t really know. I usually just talk to Stuart.”

“isn’t that boring?”

“He is fifty-eight and has a lot of knowledge. Three children and like five grandkids and used to also be an engineer so not really.” Kontane explained.

“What about the Tyrants? If you are a librarian. Shouldn’t you talk to them?”

“Stuart usually talks to them.” She says it without really looking at him.

“Well, why not you?” Draugen felt she didn’t really like others. It must be good for her working in a Tyrant based facility then.

“God, you are asking as many questions as that one called 089.” She shrugged.

“Oh 089 is my roommate and asks a lot of questions too,” Draugen nodded in understanding.

“Yeah he told me in passing you puked the bed the other day.” Kontane looked at her short but well-manicured nails.

“What the hell? That bastard – wait you talk to him? I thought you say you don’t talk to anyone?” Draugen accused.

“I don’t really but sometimes funny stories and gossip help and he seems to get that and relate them to me. He also said you can at times you jack off when you think no one is looking but 022 wants to strangle you as he can see a bit.” Kontane kept on looking at her nails.

Draugen was severely embarrassed, “Hey, that’s…he never spoken about you!” he attempted to counter.

“ Why should he? It isn’t quid pro quo.” She related.

“Who is a pro ho?” Draugen scratched his head.

“You dumbass!” Kontane looked annoyed, “I did not say that.”

“Well, you are moving your mouth after global warming too effect so its flapping on a whim.” Draugen countered, smiling to yourself.

“What the – you ass.” Kontane was walking away.

“Hey stop walking away like I am Mr X in RPD and you are Leon Kennedy.” Draugen walked alongside her, “Like, we are supposed to work together, right?”

“Do you even read any books?” She asked.

“Well, I might.” Draugen shrugged.

“Bet it would be one about asses.”

“Sounds interesting. Is it homoerotic?” Draugen snickered.

“Oh…why don’t you fuck up another mission.” Kontane walked and noticed Draugen stopped.

She looked and say him serious and kind of sad, “I did not fuck up.” He says it quietly, as a whimpering whisper, “There was this pregnant…you know what nevermind.”

He starts walking away but then feels a small grip on his arm. Subtle. Not really firm. He sees Kontane, “What did you say?”

“Does it matter?”

Her looks of annoyance changed soft instantly. “Hey, are you okay?”

“No. I am fucking not.”

He allowed her to slowly pull him forward with his hand. He walked as she moved him. They say in a chair and table in a remoter part of the library, “What’s wrong? Who was pregnant?” She actually touched his arm. “You can trust me okay.”

“I am a dumbass okay.”

“Look forget about it.”,

“No. I just… couldn’t…” Draugen did not meet her eyes.

“C’mon.”

“That guy was gonna rape a pregnant woman.”

They both got quiet.

“I…heard that general say…he knew her…he mocked her as her husband was a rebel and he died…and well, apparently, he always wanted her…” Draugen looked down, “I just…stood there for a while…she was crying and telling him to let go. But he wouldn’t and she was well pregnant. And, he pushed her and she looked hurt for a bit. And, he says he would have her…and…I…” he sighed, “I don’t know what came over me…I just couldn’t see that happen you know…I… am a fool.”

“What you did…” she looked at him sincerely, “That was so…good and pure…” she held his hand and he noticed, “Thank you.”

Draugen looked at her.

* * *

“Hello.”

“Hi…”

Naia looked at Nemesis. He had her phone in his hand but… “Wow, you look…good.”

Nemesis had discarded the hospital gown. He was wearing shoulder bearing arm bands that look more like woven tightened tape with aesthetics than the caution shit he wore almost twenty years ago, He wore his turtleneck like trench coat and he wore boots that went up a bit his knees and a bit higher. He knew Hayden and Lewis asked a dev team some specfics and he was wearing grey and black. The leather shone in the sun. And he looked pretty composed and well done.

_Well, no way I was meeting her in a damn raggedy gown_ , he thought, _A pretty human deserves more_. The outfit accentuated his muscles and his power and he felt great. He wondered if she liked it. He hoped it did as the whole look was geared for power and aesthetics, he looked toned and sleek and well fitted. Something masculine and male in him wanted to look good for this female human and he wasn’t gonna dissuade. He liked she had her eyes on him. He shivered. Her pretty big eyes looking. A thought crossed his mind which was a bit risqué. Did she look that when she…he shrugged it. She was severely adorable though.

“I am glad you wore something new! You look cool!”

The lilt of her voice charmed him, “So…” he brushed the back of his head, “About your class…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Draugen is not really a bad guy, huh? You peeps decide! Also Nemmy to the rescue and tryna look good with game xD So as always leave me comments and I will update as quick as I can! Onwards!


	7. Class is in Session

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, it's here Naia's class with Tyrants!  
> Almost 11k this chap so yay!

**Class is in Session**

Naia asked as she smiled at Nemesis. She was wearing a long dress which seemed a mix between burnt sienna and blue, bohemian like, and nice ankle leather boots and a blue leather moto jacket. Nemesis thought she looked beautiful. He was not used to seeing any person wear a great variety of clothes or not notice much. After all, Raccoon City had been filled with blood and dirt covered zombies and it was the 90s. He heard Hayden comment once that the 80s and 90s were experimental and casual in fashion in the West after the something called the disco based 70s. It made him realise human clothes also evolved, which interested him as Tyrant based clothing has also evolved alongside it. There was the ability to wear less conspicuous limiters now, helps with battle and the aesthetics, more versatile clothing even in various colours to help be prominent or camouflage, the threads notched well with their body types too. Blue Umbrella actually had some grungy fashion designers also help with Tyrant specs then they went to a factory manufacturing and were brought out. Nemesis had the realisation he wore more expensive clothes, with all the metal and leather, than many humans do. Quite the revelation. No wonder Lewis looked at Draugen’s tattered clothes with some worry. They did have costs after all. And, people wanted their hired Tyrants to meld in and look good not some Frankenstein’s monster if possible.

She looked at him again, with understanding and curiosity, “Is it allowed though? I mean I am not sure. Though I would love to have you. It would be awesome having an older Tyrant around and know their views – as in yours. Sorry if I sounded rude.” She blushed.

He shook his head. “Not at all.”  
  


“Well, I guess there is no rule that says you can’t.” A look of mischief appeared on her features making her extremely attractive to Nemesis who could her many expressions and feel he was learning a whole new topography of sorts; he had always seen Jill angry and volatile, or desperate to escape and well she would be seeing he was after her and willing to kill her in cold blood at the time, though he wasn’t sure if in better circumstances she would be spiteful and venomous, “Though,” Naia continued, “I wouldn’t want you to get into trouble.” Looking at him warmly, “I did explain about Dustin. Apparently, that’s his name. I had to tell Gresham he was being rude to me and he well, apparently got slapped in the face.” Naia looked bewildered, “Not standard protocol but Gresham stated that any sort of harassment of co-workers were forbidden and if Dustin wanted to be treated with respect he should adhere by it or else he will be slapped again. Harassment begetting harassment, a taste of his own medicine. Nian Zhen told me that.” Then added, “Well, this was before he raged on Draugen, I haven’t met him but Nian Zhen told me that Draugen failed a mission? I wonder what happened.”

“Who knows?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be his mentor?” Naia asked curiously, “Maybe,” she says softly, “You should talk to him.”

“It’s just.” Nemesis knew she was correct, he folded his arms, “I am worried what Gresham will say. I hope I am not blamed for his failures. That may seem selfish but my life isn’t…” it was painful to him to say it. “Not really my own. If I am not useful. I will be discarded.”

“I am sorry. I know it’s hard for you. In some ways, I do understand. If I don’t produce results they will terminate me. And, it’s not identical. It’s your life.” She held his arm affectionately making Nemesis’s breath hitch at the usually warmer hand, he knew as Hayden and Lewis did not seem as warm either, “Don’t worry.” She looked at him with further affection and confidence, “I will help you. I won’t let anything happen to you. I don’t want you to die.”

_No one has ever said that to me before_ , Nemesis fell quiet, H _ave they even considered I was a form of ‘life’ to be protected? I don’t know. I don’t think anyone has openly said it. Even if Nian Zhen seemed to one of those people. Then there was Anika and David. But I heard they…died. Though I never once thought of asking…should I have asked how they died? I guess I was having a feeling I knew but didn’t wish to say anything. Too much death reminds me of the time I was going to die,_ he shudders _, And, how I was ‘built’ in a way to be ‘immersed and surrounded’ by death. Now, I have broken all those protocols and I am not the same being anymore. Even if I seem relegated as I heard the word I think I am also freed to an extent. What can I supposed to do though? Should I talk to Draugen? He hardly listens. Maybe, it’s worth a shot_. He looked at Naia, _She doesn’t want me to die. I wanna live. For myself. For you. For Hayden and Lewis. For Nian Zhen. For Jill. Maybe, it is selfish. But I wasn’t allowed to be selfish before. I wasn’t allowed to be anything other than a weapon. And, in all respects and technicalities, I am a weapon, a bio-organic weapon, teaching another weapon to be a weapon. A weapon who did not act like a weapon and produced a form of ‘failure’ in the last mission. Are we… now he pondered, That different then? He looked at Naia holding his arm with warmth, Maybe, Draugen and I aren’t so different in some ways. I mean. I mutated. I couldn’t kill Jill. I had to mutate and in some ways. It would read as a failure to my scientists that I had mutated. A BIG One. But I surpassed the failure. I am now, in a way, more versatile. Maybe, I should give Draugen the benefit of the doubt. Though, I can’t let him fully slid for being mean to Lewis, who pretty much helped him with all his wounds._

“Hey, big guy, are you okay?”

“Yes, I am sorry. I am just thinking.” Nemesis realised he had dazed off, “I…uh, am considering your angle. I analysed it and found myself thinking maybe I should give it a go. After all, there is no harm, as his mentor, to ask him why he made such a grievous error as the humans are calling it as well. I mean it is not at all a bad idea. Talking to him. Though he usually treats me as old machinery.” He cringed when he spoke it, “I mean, there isn’t really anything I can do about it.”

“I think you need time to build mutual respect. I also know it is not great for you. I am sorry. I will see if I can help in any way. With your permission.” She looked at him with tenderness, “After all. I trust you know your stuff and I am not going to interfere or do anything you don’t want me to do.”

Nemesis felt Naia was keeping on dropping bombs at him. _Permission as well, huh? The more you treat me as a person_ , he sighed, I _t sometimes hurts because…_ his eye softened at her, _Because it feels so raw and taste and I am getting used to it and I want you to always hold my arm and talk to me like this. I am thinking a lot about you too. I want to keep on thinking about you. You make me happy. You make me feel peaceful. Because of you I am opening up to Hayden and Lewis. And, I want to give you the respect you deserve. You are…_ he breathed in, _A beautiful gem of a human being._

“Of course. But you don’t need my permission. I actually could use some of the help. I have never been anything but a weapon before. And,” he rubbed his head, with its purples, blues and reds veins flecked out on synthesised skin of a prototype and beast of battle, “I am not used to being a mentor and talking to others. Especially, about such, what you humans would call, ‘sensitive’ issues. It is actually more difficult than physically fighting. And, it makes me feel awkward. Draugen is also difficult and he is like, as you humans would say, a kid though he isn’t a kid. I am just. You know. Confused on how to start?”

“Maybe, just calmly ask him, but first say that despite you know he is rowdy, was there anything wrong in the setting? Something, he can’t easily say.” Naia advised.

“What if he insults me?” Nemesis asked.

“Take it as a defence mechanism and ask again, gently, if needed. Stress on how if he repeats the mistake it may look bad for NE-T types and he may be reined in from missions. You don’t need to mention you as he may take delight in it. And, if he says something you can say you still be useful on your own merits as you can help Nergel and Foe and you still have a lot of data on Raccoon City. So, you have a lot of uses but he is still on active duty.” Naia points out and Nemesis is fascinated at her observations, “I know it’s hard. Trust me. This I know. But being a bit patient helps.”

“You are right.” Nemesis nods, “I should still, despite how unruly he is, talk to him about it.”

“That’s good to know.” She smiled, “Oh yeah.” She was fishing inside her canvas tote bag, Nemesis had noticed she was carrying one, “I got you this.” She got out a sealed plastic coffee container, which seemed from Lucas’s stall, and it had the words “For N” on it, “You liked the espresso, right? I got it for you.”

Nemesis took it in his hand. No one ever bought him anything before either. Food for Tyrants were free in the sense they were ‘owned’ by the facility. But food for facility humans was not entirely free as it was deducted from their pay. They either had to show ID and then got wrist bands associated with their watches or just wore as a bracelet, which scanned what they took for eating or if they brought anything from the facility store, the Palanquin, which housed things from sanitary pads to designer clothes. Nothing was essentially ‘free’ and he knew this as many techs around him bitched about how pricey something had gotten at times, even if the pay was not meagre, working full-on with Tyrants meant you made a good living. Yet, she bought him coffee and had no need to do so.

“You know we can go the stand some other time and experiment with flavours. See what else you may like.” She offered. Naia had her warm smile as she stated it. He nodded. It sounded fun.

He took a slip and loved the strong, bittersweet taste trailing down his throat, he sniffled a bit, loving this whole ‘caffeine’ thing humans talked about. Seemed to be super relaxing. Naia was also drinking coffee. “Class doesn’t start in another forty minutes. Let’s just enjoy this.”

“Yes. Draugen is supposed to come to your class anyway.”

“He is?”

“Yes, Gresham asked him to.” Nemesis informed, “Maybe it will be good for him. As you mentioned, he is on active duty. Learning about things would be useful, though…” he looked at her, “So, what are you teaching?”

“It is not certain as of yet as in I am making the syllabus. I am supposed to help teach Tyrants about human society, social structures and communication, and empathy. Of course, I need to understand all my students to make it work and to see what sort of queries they have and how to approach them. I have plotted some things for today’s class and I have decided to just go with it. I can discuss more with Gresham and Byron later. I do need to talk to Wagner and Kensley though as they have been teaching the other Tyrants.” Naia explained as they sat down on a stone bench, like the day they met, which occurred to both of them was just yesterday. Yet, they felt an ease with each other and could talk a lot with each other. Nemesis and Naia felt they knew each other longer. The comfort was noted.

“It sounds interesting.” Nemesis looked at her, “You sound like you understand a lot already.”

“I had to prep a lot. God, I am nervous.” She partially hugged herself, “I always get nervous teaching a new class and batch. And, now my students are Tyrants. I hope I do everyone justice.”

To see Naia worried about making a good impression fascinated him, most humans did not really care, and Nian Zhen and his now dead friends, Anika and David, had developed a confidence even before he was out of his comatose state, so it intrigued him, “I am sure you will be fine.” He meant it, the Tyrants were lucky as she seems so kind and warm, “I trust you.”

“Thanks, big guy.” She smiled at him.

They were drinking the coffee and enjoying each other’s company. The sun was up, the trees around them making a canopy, the birds chirping and they could both smell some nice flowers. They were finishing off their coffee. When a big sort of thud nearby alerted them. It seemed like something or someone collided with a steel sort of clank thing and then a “welp” was heard.

“Hey,” Naia got up immediately followed by Nemesis, “What was that? It’s there…” There were some bushes nearby.  
  
She put her nearly finished coffee down and Nemesis did the same and she actually strode in front. Nemesis would have preferred to go first. He was a combatant and he knew how to eliminate threats with ease. He had to trust Naia and was close enough to pull her aside and punch anything serving as a hostile. Though he was curious. He had not come to this section of the courtyards and gardens much. It was, in a way fate, he met with Naia the day before as he traversed here a bit less and walked around other places. His security had thinned as he had told them he was going to the class and they approval from Gresham, who was his direct supervisor. However, from what little he knew of the area, he knew there was not any of the research greenhouses near so the chances of an escaped project seemed a bit unlikely though not improbable. Shouldn’t there be an alarm then? He was informed by Hayden there is always a red or black alert and even metallic shutters made to withstand Tyrant based attacks if anything out of the ordinary occurred. None of the failsafe mechanisms were under place so…now he was curious and a bit worried. The sound seemed painful. And, if it was a human, were they an ally? A foe? If so, under Umbrella protocols and for Naia’s safety he would have to either dispose of them, if they seemed malicious enough, or capture them for interrogation.

The former action did not necessarily please him as he would rather not kill someone so easily and in front of Naia. Additionally, he was not really interested in killing a spy especially now he was befriending humans and such. Though he would kill if necessary. Some humans could be dangerous. And, he had to be responsible for Naia. Her safety came first.

“Hey, there’s blood…here…”

Naia looked a bit horrified, as trails of blood manifested. Nemesis clenched his fists. Blood was not a good sign. What the fuck was going on?

There was a noise, like a whimper, startling them both. Naia crept, as if instinctually not to alert or alarm, the owner of the whimpering. Nemesis enjoyed her ability to strategize and shifted to do the same after all, if required he would go in front and attack. Though, was it a wounded scientist? If so, he counted on Naia to call the medical team. And, he knew they couldn’t blame him this time as Naia was around and she would vouch he wasn’t being violent. Still, it fazed him a bit if they could both get into trouble. _Maybe, as humans say, I need more coffee to handle this?_

The welp came but a bit stronger. Naia stiffened for a bit but proceeded with Nemesis behind her. They saw some small pools of blood and a sigh of pain. Nemesis smelled the blood. It did not feel not necessarily smell human. Not necessarily a Tyrant as well. _Wait, it smells like one of ‘them’…how is that possible?_ _What is it doing out here? Has it escaped?_ Nemesis was beginning to distrust this. From his knowledge, he knew these things usually did not hang around without supervision or far away from greenhouses for no real purpose. “What is it? Who is here – Oh my God!”

Naia’s surprised voice alerted Nemesis and the whimpering one. It was Bulbs who was still bleeding and scrambled and clutched his wounds. Bulbs hissed at them a bit, unsure in what they wanted. As he did, Nemesis immediately pulled Naia out of the way and growled at him, with a menacing flex, a threat: ‘don’t even fucking think of anything.’ Bulbs looked at Nemesis now in fear and even Naia, who he realised may not be some wandering human, he shielded himself apologetically. “Wait, Nemesis. They are wounded!” Naia didn’t care they had hissed and pushed in front again. “What’s wrong with you? What happened? How are you hurt like this? Can you understand what I am saying?”

Naia noticed her own voice, shaky and also unsure on how to proceed and pondering what happened. Nemesis was behind her, marvelling at her kindness and her sense of determination. She seemed able to compose herself well enough and do things. He wondered if her potential could be exercised in more places than being a teacher as her alacrity of perseverance and though, even if hinged with doubt and fears, were able to work well enough. Knowing one’s flaws and still attempting to push through was something he felt important in humans and Tyrants, even BOWs like Lickers who were blind and used sound and taste to immerse themselves in a world where things meant territory and survival. He felt it would be easier to train Naia than it is training Draugen. Draugen’s hubris usually got the best of him and is ability to do immature things made him miss some of his required roles. A good thing, he noticed with less arrogant humans, if they knew how ‘under-matched’ they were against Tyrants and such and so were more willing to know their limitations and adapt. And, learning adaptation has been more or less his role since he came out of the coma. It was not as easy as it sounded and it required an open mind, body and a good reserve of cultivating flexibility. Something, he found hard top admit, could seem inimically absent in Tyrants as they were so specialised. Yet, human markers on them were not the only thing which existed on them. They had their viruses, environments and nature so the probability scope was higher than initially surmised. One must be one with it as much as possible and tap into it. Living beings, more than viruses, has the ability to transcend limits and even bend and use their limits as an advantage. Limits were not a curse, they were boundaries to play with and expand when needed. He was learning this. And, he has growing a love of learning.

Bulbs looked at her questions. There was a weariness in his eyes. He did not trust and who could blame him? Who was this human? Why was she here with a NE-a T Type Tyrant? Was the Tyrant the Nemesis he had heard so much about? He was not wearing a hospital gown anymore. What was going on? Bulbs ignored her questions for a bit and attempted to get up. He fell down and cried out alarming both Naia and Nemesis. “Hey, don’t move! You are only hurting yourself!” Naia rushed to his side but he was now crawling, attempting, seemingly, to get away, the fear evident in his blackish eyes, that lacked any coloured irises and had faint pupils, almost easy to miss.

“Please, don’t hurt me. I am sorry. I haven’t done anything wrong.”

Naia was so shocked she stopped for a brief moment. Nemesis looked similarly startled. “I did not know these things could talk. I mean I have seen some but they usually use their own guttural language with their Mother tree I have been told. They only learn a liminal form of communication with us.” Nemesis observed from behind, still ready to pounce if needed.

“I thought the same. But you can talk!” she smiled and went near him, he was shaking yet she put his head on her shoulder, “I am not going to hurt you. I promise. My name is Naia.” She ruffled his blackish-green foliage hair, “Why are you hurt?” she got out some water from her tote bag and put it to his lips. He lapped hungrily finishing her entire canister of it. The cool, refreshing tinge stuck to his throat. He looked at her unsure at what she wanted and also aware he was still afraid of the Tyrant with her as well as her. To him, humans were more dangerous than Tyrants. Tyrants could be mission oriented and may not easily have a taste of sadism. Humans seemed to easily shift and switch those gears. Kindness could be _imitated_ and soon a truth of nefarious intentions unveiled. He did not wish to dislike or hate humanity. However, most humans he met have been so cruel and unkind so he hated them as he did not know how to love them; these species who called him a ‘reject’ and used him, proved to him he should be under their boot heels and hate them as masters and oppressors. Hate them for showing their perceived sense of _superiority_ over him. He had wanted to love yet could not understand how to love and respect these ‘others’ who othered him so easily and pushed him always as a _thing._ It hurt to know for he had not known of hate before. Sadness, yes. Hate was very well earned and learned. 

He was surprised she did not know. Did not most humans know and make fun of him? What was happening?

Nemesis turned fast as he heard a noise and snarled. He was not taking chances. And, he was alert as he has always been. No one was going to hurt Naia or think him dulled enough to not notice –

“Jill?”

There, in front of him, stood Jill Valentine. Nice leather jeans. Versatile, sleeveless purple turtleneck form-fitted top. Stilettoed, black knee length boots with steel buckles on the side. Nemesis felt a hard on coming on. See her long hair, chestnut deep brown and bluish grey eyes looking at him with some shock. Then a frown. She also wore a silver, bullet like necklace with a black shiny string – Fuck, she looked perfect. Nemesis wanted to pick her up and twirl her right there. She was so fucking, incredibly beautiful. Then he looked at Naia and thought her also incredibly, fucking beautiful. _Well, they are both so beautiful and intelligent and all…oh fuck, I think I like them both… he actually went to twiddle his fingers, Though, I have a connection with Naia now. Still, Jill looks so amazing. I wanna eat her like a Jill sandwich – what the fuck am I thinking?!_

“Hey, cunt, don’t space out.” Jill almost spat out at him.

Nemesis should be insulted. But he was actually thrilled. _She called me a cunt. Neat. She looks fucking awesome when she is angry. So fierce._

“So, STARS.” Nemesis grinned, making Jill look at him annoyed, “Nice to see you after more than twenty years. You look great! And alive! I am happy.” _I sound like an idiot_.

“Uh,” Jill was super shocked, “Thank you?” Why the fuck is he happy? “Wait, you can say more than STARS?”

  
Nemesis nods. Gulps. “I can. Talk better now.”  
  
“Oh. Uh…” she wanted to be angry, but in a moment, she saw Nemesis being protective of Naia, taking a stance and even eyeing the weird, different Ivy Zombie as if to warn them to not fuck and make a move they would regret. She liked Naia and Nemesis being there for Naia made her calm a bit down. She wanted to tear him a new one. So many horrible memories came back, she shivered. Yet, Nemesis actually stated he was glad to see her and wasn’t coming after her. She would need a lot to get used to him. Like this. Or, otherwise. Yet, she had faced so much over the years so a comforting form of change was welcomed. He even seemed nervous around her. Which was fucking saying something. “That’s good…” she struggled to say words beyond insults, never in fucking over twenty years had she thought she would be talking to Nemesis and not shooting off his face. The world amazes me all the time in how resilient in it in resisting Anthropic labels. She smiled to herself.

“Jill, why are you here?” Naia asked, with Bulbs still on her shoulder, observing everyone, “Is everything alright?”

Before she could answer, Bulbs called out, “Hi STARS. I am Bulbs. They call me that.”

Jill blinked. Then looked at Nemesis. Almost a glare. He pretended to look elsewhere, “My name is Jill. Smartass.”

“Jill Smartass.” Bulbs blinked.

Naia looked at him. Nemesis chuckled and then Jill glared at him but he muffled his laughter with his hand. “No. Jill. Jill Valentine. You are being a Smartass.”

“I am just Bulbs.” He actually smiled, amused at everything.  
  
Naia started laughing too, “Jill, I think Bulbs likes you!” Nemesis looked at them all.  
  
“What the -?” Jill massaged the back of her neck, “Look, uh, I am not a vegetarian so maybe liking me isn’t the best thing.” It was small, corny joke and it made Naia snort. Nemesis got it after a minute and chuckle. Bulbs blinked unsure what it meant but then smiled at all of them.  
  
“Bulbs?”

A voice called out and instantly Bulbs got quiet. And, shivered. He seemed to recognise Frieda Axton from the lab, “Are you okay, Bulbs?” Frieda looked at Jill, “Thanks for like bringing me out here.” Jill nodded. “Wow, you are the Nemesis.” Frieda smiled at Nemesis and he had to smile back as a way of introduction, “I am Dr. Frieda Axton and you may call me Frieda. Naia?” She looked at her, “Oh, what are you – shit, he is bleeding a lot.” She had a medical bag and she went towards him, Bulbs looked scared but Naia ruffled his head, “Bulbs, are you feeling very weak?” Bulbs nodded, “Okay, I am going to take you to a med lab and we can work from there.” Bulbs nodded, “Wait, Naia, you are out here?”

Those green eyes looked at her, “You remembered me?” she asked.

“Yes, you seemed the most friendly out of the most people. And, well, Abel was being a jokester.” Frieda had a lint to her laugh, Jill noticed this and wondered if Frieda was somewhat attracted to Naia, with her big Garamond doe eyes and naturally flush pink-mauve lips and thick curvy body. Whilst walking here Frieda had revealed she was having a rocky time with a girlfriend and Jill rightfully deduced she was predominantly lesbian as she stated her current girlfriend had been with her for years and most had not stayed too long. Jill did not like Frieda giving too much attention to Naia _, I saw her first in a way you know_. She also believed Naia was someone she was having fun with in a long time. She hardly had female friends and some male colleagues got too flirty with her so friendship was always off the table least they think otherwise. Some of the female colleagues she has would treat her as a rival rather than a friend or even a probable romantic interest like the guys. Jill hated to admit to herself. But she missed having ‘normal’ friends who she could fuck off with and not think of viruses and other bio-hazards. Was that too much to ask? Alongside the fact, Naia had stayed with her on the phone, for the majority of the night talking – listening to shared music and she found it soothing and calming. She felt more alive in a way. Naia had told her the same. She hadn’t had much interactions in a while. And, her ironically, her closest and somewhat distant cousin, had not talked to her in a while. Naia had explained she had done this with her often at one point in their lives.

“Yes, I remembered you too.” Jill was following their conversation, “You seemed nicer as well.”

“I am sorry I wanted to speak more but Gresham had us all a bit well…you know.”

Naia laughed, both Jill and Nemesis noticed the laugh, then noticed _each other_ noticing her laugh. Jill raised a brow and Nemesis actually gave a challenging look back. Jill smirked and Nemesis for a while stuck out his tongue. It seemed they were being competitive again. And, not for survival this time, either. _You are full of surprises aren’t you monster?_

_Yum, you are still STARS in some ways, but I am still Nemesis so eat my ass_ , Nemesis though as he put his tongue back to his mouth. “That’s okay,” Naia said, “Jill was there for me.”

Jill wiggled her brows and Nemesis snorted. “Yeah, Jill was nice enough to be here for me. She actually wanted to make sure I was safe.”

“No problem, Frieda.” Jill realised she was reminding her a bit of Sheva, with her smooth skin and observant eyes, reminding her to email the beauty sometime soon, “So, let me walk you back. I am sure you could use the assist with Bulbs.”

“You know. That name is….” Frieda looked at his yellow and purple bulbs, “It seems more like a classification than a name.” she saw them pulsate, “Hmmm, the purple ones are an outlier. Genetic variance?” she said out loud to herself noting his physiology.

“Yes. I think that is uncommon for them.” Nemesis observantly replied showing his knowledge. He probably knew Frieda was talking to herself but no harm in stating what he knew. “He seems to have been living in this abandoned shed. Perhaps, Doctor, you may make other arrangements for him? If you are taking care of him? I believe the shed seems untenable for him anyways.”

“You are surely right Nemesis. Please, call me Frieda.” She picked up Bulbs with Naia, “He was called a ‘reject’ as he cannot bind with Gerechtslinde. But the name Bulbs is something you would name a pet hamster or something.”

“Many of the security also call me Fuckmess, FuckerBulbs, Fucking Reject and Fucked Up too.” Bulbs says it very casually.

“That sounds so horrible.” Naia commented, even Nemesis and Jill cringed.

“What the fuck is wrong with these people?” Jill shook her head in disgust and disbelief. Nemesis looked at her in utter admiration.

“There is no way.” Naia looked enraged, surprising everyone, “We can’t just call him Bulbs!” she looked determined, “We should give him a name that suits him!”

“Yeah, a special sort of name for a special sort of Ivy Zombie.” Frieda smiled.

“Why do you humans call me a zombie? I am not an undead and we were born in pods like this. And we have are not infected humans.” He tilts his head questioningly, “It just seems a bit odd.”

“It is a sort of a common slang around here. Sorry if it may seem rude, but many of the people infected by a Plant 142 looked a bit like you so they just stuck with it. You are usually classified as Ivy Wood-folk or Ivy Guardians. So, you are like Tyrants, as in BOWs.” Frieda explained.

Naia looked in though, “Guardian?” she spoke to herself and Nemesis looked at her, realising she was in deep thought, “Guardian. Guardian. Guardian!” she looked happy alarming others, “I got!”

“You do?” Nemesis looked at her confused.

“Askafroa!”

“Is that a human expression?” Nemesis rubbed his head but then looked at Jill and Frieda and they looked confused too.

“It’s a mythological guardian of a tree. He can be Askafroa or Aska!” she pointed, in excitement.

“Askafroa. Askafroa. Aska. Aska. I like it.” The formerly known as Bulbs spoke with a smile, which looked a bit strange on him.

“Alright, Aska let’s move. “ Frieda started taking him.

“Just give me a moment.” Jill looked at them leaving and looked at Naia, with some disappointment, “Leon told me you gave Nemesis your phone. Why didn’t you tell me anything? That you met him?”

“I am really sorry. Please don’t be mad. I was gonna tell you today at our coffee stuff. I just wanted to tell you in person everything.” Naia looked down. Nemesis heard them whisper and decided he wanted them to have privacy. At this vantage point, he could see Naia was way taller than Jill. Two of them looked pretty in the courtyard light and he smiled to himself.

Jill sighs, and to Nemesis and Naia’s surprise, she puts her arms around her neck, Nemesis raised an eye and Naia affectionately held her arms, “It’s alright. I understand. Heard you got your first class today. Good luck, okay?” She smiled, “If you need anything and have any trouble. You can always call me. I am here okay. Just need to help Frieda take Aska to a med lab.”

“Of course, Jill.” Naia smiled.

Out of the corner of her eye, Jill subtly smirks at Nemesis, and he actually snorts and folds his arms, and subtly blows raspberries at her. They both were laughing maniacally on the inside. Who would have guessed? When they have even met, that many years down the road, their dynamic would seem null and void but still retain some of its core intensity in actually competing for someone they wanted to be close to? It seemed funny. Improbable even. Yet it was happening. Also, Jill and Nemesis realised they don’t really need to talk much now. Naia became a saving grace in a way towards old wounds. At least, they were tolerating the other with some respect. Jill looked at Nemesis, up and down, him wearing his clothes. _He cleans up very nice out of the garbage bag_. She snickered to herself and had to admit he was looking good in all the ensemble.

“Okay. I will go now. See you later, Naia. Nemesis.” She nodded in acknowledgment, “It was nice to meet you again. It actually was.”

“I’ll tell Nian Zhen you didn’t kill me.” He actually winked making them both laugh and Naia smile.

“Yeah sure. Do that.”

“Nice meeting you too.” He waved and she waved back at them before she left. Fucking surprised she had waved at Nemesis.

Naia and Nemesis walked forward, “I honestly did not think I would come across a plant Zombie or Guardian who is away from the tree would be treated so badly.” She looked really quiet.

Nemesis had a feeling she was upset, “Well,” he didn’t like her upset, “You did what you could for him. Let Freida and Jill handle it. Knowing Jill Valentine, she will do right for whatever it takes.” A memory comes in his mind, of him evolving into a giant thing and Jill not worried about herself and telling the man Carlos to run and get the vaccine for the city. If he actually felt bad the city was still destroyed. And, remembered, how angry he was, how much in pain he was. He had to mutate again. The cellular division hurt like hell. Each and every time. And, he was forced to go through with it. After burning and screaming in acid. A part of him _hated_ Jill for hurting him in the manner she did. Another, _understand_. As he pretty much bit into her making her almost eviscerate so many times that she had fought to breathe as bandaged and downed herbs and sprayed the first aid and screamed as the adrenalin and pain fused making her charge at him again. They had both wanted the other to die miserably. It was saying the truth.

Late afternoon was settling in. The sun was high and it cast more shadows on the canopy of trees. A warm breeze, more signs of spring, were wafting through. Birds were singing and fluttered along the way. Nemesis even saw a bunch of grey squirrels climbing up trees. He was not used to be surrounded by peacefulness and life. It was also something he had never thought about. He wondered if Jill liked the courtyards and if she felt strange, yet peaceful in them as well. He had heard humans, who seemingly came from nature more so than Tyrants, always have a link to nature as such. He wondered if he had a link as them too. Even if he was “artificially” created he did have human DNA in him as well, which presented him as humanoid. And, his parasite was, though also a craft of science, was also like many sorts of creatures he had seen on Earth. Nothing too xenomorphic to be well considered ‘unknown’ and ‘extra-terrestrial.’ He hoped, in a way, though he was bored of the courtyard just yesterday, to not not have this link. He did not wish to only be a BOW in this sense. He wanted to belong to the planet he inhabited. Even if it was in a small way. After all, even machines become one with the world, and as a biological form of machine, could he not do the same? The thought arrested him a while. He hoped so he could see how he belonged here more than some data harvest.

A quiet settled as he thought. Naia looked up, “You thinking?” he nods and she asks, “You respect Jill, right?”

“Yes. She was always getting away and being resourceful as anything. I know once or twice she had help. You know. I envied that. It infuriated me. No one was helping me. They all called me a monster. Not going to go against it. But. She had allies to watch her back.” Nemesis looked down for a while, “I could only mutate.”

Naia felt the sharp pain in his voice. She caressed his arm, “It’s okay. It’s behind you now. And, you have allies now.”

He looked at her.

“You have me.”

Nemesis actually held her hand for a bit making her blush. He looked at her, softly with much gratefulness, “Thank you.”

* * *

The classroom was small. It was clean and sanitised. It had large windows that looked out at the courtyards they had come from. They could even look at the Ivy Guardians in one of the Facility research greenhouses. Yet, it was small. Naia realised she was given a bit of a corner room. She sighed. _So, yup, I guess I must prove if I need a bigger classroom_. She smiled to herself, _Fine by me_.

The chairs were large obviously with the attached large desks but they also seem well, worn, old wood and steel. She had a white board, a projector and some of the essentials. The board was a bit smaller than the other classrooms. It was a bit dusty too compared the rest of the class. She could somewhat smell something, maybe a bit of mould, not too harmful but she made a note. She was lucky there were big windows so she opened one and let the natural light and air come in. For the first time in his life, Draugen was early, he was using a blade filled with some purple sort of flame to carve his name onto a desk, a bit before the back. 089 and Slevin were also in the class and they looked at him shocked at both his punctuality and the fact he was doing knife tricks in a class. Weapons were usually prohibited and so was any signs of visible aggression because Tyrants could fight and bicker amongst themselves. Any sort of incident would immediately be reported and subjects aptly penalised. Sometimes, even sent to an isolationist pod for some hours. It may be cruel but it was allowed by the Facility even if they did wish to do most things humanely and ethically.

Nemesis sat at the far back of the class eyeing Draugen and wanting to shake his head at the immaturity of his supposed pupil who now seemingly wanted to carve a penis onto the desk. 089 rolled his eyes and Slevin almost blanched; also, the purple hot knife was actually putting too much pressure on the wooden desk, it seemed to have liquified flames inside and they were severely damaging everything. “Uh.” Draugen looked up, “Could you please not do that?”

Draugen looked at Naia up and down. Looked at her up and down again. And, to the shock of 089 and Slevin, and the immediate rage of Nemesis, whistled crudely using his tentacles as lips at Naia. “Damn….” He whispered, “You look great.”

“Excuse me?” Naia looked back at him.

“They told me you were pretty but I guess now I see how much.” He pointed at 089 and Slevin who Naia looked at and they had to look elsewhere. 089 looked pissed and 077 looked embarrassed, “Hi there, sweetie. I am Draugen.”

“Well, buttwipe, nice to meet you too.”

They all looked at an aghast Draugen and Nemesis snickered. “Huh.” Draugen was starting.

“I am the teacher of this class and you can call me Miss Nazari or Naia. You can’t talk to me like we are in a bar and you are trying to pick me up. Please, don’t act like this. And..” she decisively went and took the knife out of his hand, “I believe you have been around longer than me to know you cannot destroy Facility property. I will have to confiscate this.”

“Wait, that’s mine!” Draugen called out, tentacles out as well, making Nemesis and the others get alert, “I need to have the lab have it back nor else they well tell Dr Gresham I lost it.”

“Well, it’s mine now. You should have thought of that when you acted like a kid and was using this in class. I thought weaponry was strictly prohibited. You cannot expect to do things without responsibility. “ Naia looked annoyed. All the Tyrants began to think how cute yet fierce she looked.

_I don’t mind being murdered by her_ , 089 thought as he looked at Nemesis who was eyeing the situation closely. Nemesis breathed evenly yet 089 was a Tyrant as well, not to mention an observant one, he could see without fail how Nemesis was tempted to be angry. Slevin smiled as he noticed this. He had told 089 he had met Nemesis. And, now he was wearing cool new clothes.

“Fucking, stupid human.” Draugen folded his arms.

“Hey! Language.” Naia was so shocked at his way of talking. Nemesis snarled. What the fuck was Draugen’s problem? Just because he fucked up somewhere he was giving everyone attitude? And who the hell did he think he was calling _his_ Naia _stupid_?!

089 looked more pissed now. Slevin’s jaw dropped, “Draugen…”

“Hey, you are _just_ a _teacher_ , right?” Draugen countered, getting up a bit from his slumped position in the chair, “You aren’t even a scientist. Even the techs around me said you were like some experimental person they have on here and such. Why should I respect you at all? Do you know who I am? I am Draugen!” he was fierce. Nemesis gripped the desk, shaking in fury. 089 growled subtly under his breath. Something, if he ever, rarely did, in such situations, even with Draugen. “I am the first ever NE-v T Type Tyrant! I am one of the cutting edges of technology! I answer directly to Dr. Gresham. So, like, you are not more important than me. You are quite replaceable.”

Draugen looked satisfied as he smiled only to feel taken aback seeing Slevin looking _disgusted_ at him.

“Oh, you are Draugen.” Naia looked at him with some scepticism and back at a calmed down Nemesis, who was a bit confused at why Naia showed no reaction to his insult aside a tinge of sadness, “Well, you know what. This isn’t mandatory for you, right? You are not in the names I have in my list. You can leave. I don’t know why you are here, anyways, if you think so _highly_ of me.” The venom was there at the end. 089 felt it and so did the others.

Draugen looked at Slevin who refused now to look at him. He was surprised to see the Elite Tyrant actually _angry_. It was rare for Slevin to get angry. Even at him. _I fucked up bad, didn’t I?_

“I have to stay. Dr. Gresham said so.” Draugen looked down at his name he carved on the desk.

“Well, then why don’t you just calm down. You can have the knife back by the end of class.” Naia reasoned. 

022, 053, 045 and 032 appeared in the class and Naia went to greet them and assure them they weren’t late. Draugen attempted to talk to Slevin but he just didn’t turn towards him. “Hey man, I am sorry.” Draugen whispered.

“You sometimes are a fuck-all you know.” Slevin snapped back, “There was no reason to insult her like that. What the fuck you think you are, Draugen? You are becoming a fucking bastard these days.” Slevin folded his arms and looked elsewhere.

Draugen was furious but breathed slowly. He looked down. So, now, am I truly alone?

They all sat down. Someone appeared at the door though. “Yes, can I help you?” Naia asked her. For she was a female Steel Tyrant. An few inches shorter than her male counterparts but long, sleek, muscular and wearing a purple bodysuit leotard with white tiger like stripes on the legs and muscular arms exposed. Her abdomen full of abs and toned with nice hips. Though she was wearing a turtle neck she had her cleavage exposed by a cut near her breasts. Also wearing purple, fingerless gloves coated with steel as her fancy leather brown boots. A distinctive feature was her pink nail polish and pinkish-purple lipstick. She eyed Naia with some disdain. Up and down. As if she was looking at a _rival_. And, not just a human.

“I doubt you can. So, you are Naia Eve Nazari.” She tilted her head, “I don’t see what is so _special_ about _you_ , though. Some of them boys get excited over everything, don’t they?”

Naia realised the female Elite Tyrant was insulting her. She did not understand why in the slightest. _First Draugen, now this woman, God, this is not NOT how I imagined my first day…_

“Vanessa?” Draugen looked at the female Tyrant.

“Heard you fucked up bad in a mission, Draugen. Not that you fuck great too.” The female Elite Tyrant with the black and white hair up to her waist laughed, “Sucks to be you right now. In this class, with some underqualified teacher.” She laughed some more and looked at the other guys and winked.

None of them winked at her back. Nemesis heard of this Vanessa. _Wow, she is an obnoxious fuck_ , he thought to himself. Vanessa looked angry at the guys’ lack of reactions. She smiled at them, “I know you boys work hard and maybe you didn’t wanna be here. Don’t worry. I am sure we can have a good time in the cafeteria.” She winked again. She scowled and was irked when no one seemed to be paying much attention to her. Not even 053, who coughed awkwardly.

“Maybe not, Vanessa.” 089 spoke up, “We are busy here. Leave. And, don’t forget to close the door.”

Vanessa cringed. Naia looked at her, “I don’t know what’s up but you have to leave. I must start the class. If you continue to be a disruption I will have to report you.” She actually bend down towards Naia and glared at her.

“You can report me all you want.” Vanessa looked at a surprised Naia, whose face she was close to, “I am not gonna be intimidated by you.”

“Well, that would defeat the purpose of my job.” Naia did not care for Vanessa’s glare, which softened after hearing those lines, “Is there a reason why you specifically came here?”

Vanessa looked intimidated by the question, “No. not really. I will leave.”

“You can’t come in the class anyway. You are not good enough for it. Don’t you have to meet up with Kensley anyway as you are not doing great in the language courses?” 089 adjusted his glove, Naia looked at him as he stated his words, she wondered why he was being kinda mean to her, “So, off you go.”

“Fuck you, 089.” Vanessa spat out.

“You wish.” 089 did not even look at her as she stormed off. Her footfalls echoing in the halls. Nemesis was wondering what the fuck was all of it about. He was going to get up when he saw her so close to Naia’s face giving her sexy wide-legged stance, butt up as she bent herself. Yes, she was pretty and attractive, Nemesis admitted. Yet, unlike the feeling he felt with Foe, he did not feel the same with Vanessa at all. She was being bratty like Draugen and he had enough of it already.

Naia wanted to ask but 053 spoke up, “She is always trying to score with 089 and he is not interested in her much so she always gets pissed off. She comes to our floor often just to see him.”

Everyone looked at him. Slevin coughed. 089 groaned. 022 laughed. Draugen snorted immediately. Pissed off at Vanessa making fun of him and hoping he could give her a good fuck to alleviate all his tension. Nemesis looked bored at them and wondered what he had walked into. 032 and 045 waved at him. Nemesis waved back. “What? All you guys who known knew it’s the truth.” 053 shrugged.

Naia closed the door as she began class. “Okay. Uhm, hello and sorry about those delays. I am Naia Eve Nazari. You can call me Naia. I am a teacher who is supposed to teach you about empathy and human society, social aspects and things associated. I have also gotten an email from Dr Wagner who has told me, for people in this class, I can be their tutor for other related subjects. Anything you don’t understand in their classes you can ask me and we can try and sort out something.” She looked at Nemesis at the back, she wondered if he did not want to stand out amongst the ‘young bloods.’ He looked nervous. “Hey Nems,” he looked up and so did everyone, “There isn’t many students in the class so please come up.”

_Nems?_ He actually liked the abbreviation as he decided to sit next to Slevin and 053 winked at him flirtatiously. He got amused and winked back. 053 comically started fanning himself. Nemesis snickered.

Naia smiled at Nemesis and he smiled back. She then proceeded to write two words on the board. They all read it. ‘Neurotypical’ and ‘Neurodivergent.’ Nemesis got nervous and pulled at one of his tentacles.

“Oh yes I heard of those.” Slevin spoke up, “I also heard some people don’t like using it.”

Draugen looked at the words, “Neuro-what my life?”

“God, shut up, Draugen.” 022 looked tired, “Why are you here anyway?”

“Yo fuck-mitts, shut up.” Draugen groaned.

Naia hooked up her laptop to the projector and half closed the blinds, “Neurotypical usually means someone is reacting, working, thinking and doing tasks the way society wishes for them to do. Whereas Neurodivergent is for people who have disabilities such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, autistic spectrum and other visual-neural variances and so have trouble thinking in the ‘typical’ way. You may meet Neurodivergent people in assignments and may work with them. You may even see them face discrimination. Yes, Slevin, thank you, you are right. It is controversial. On one hand, people believe it can be inclusive but have limitations in a definition. Others believe it can be too ‘medical.’ Whereas, ironically, medical psychological institutions have not necessarily adopted the word for it could be a bit ambiguous for scientific classifications. However, the reason I chose both these words is because it is an integral part of human society to incorporate science yet also have spheres that seem away from the labels or identifiers of scientific institutions. Human social life can be complex and so we can say this is a sign of one of its complex arcs of recognitions and reactions.”

The Tyrants looked interested. Even Nemesis was paying attention, while he pulled at his shoulder tentacle. Only Draugen went, “Who is Slevin?”

“077 has a name now. It’s Slevin.” 022 absentmindedly commented. 045 , 053 and 032 realised it and smiled at him.

Draugen looked wounded for a bit, “You.” He looked at Slevin who refused to look at him, “Have a name now? You didn’t tell me…”

“You were on a mission. And, Naia gave me my name.” Slevin was not looking but idly answered.

“It’s a good name.” Nemesis nodded, “I liked it when we met last night.” The two exchanged smiles.

“Wait, even Nemesis, knows your name…” Draugen was just looking at the ground.

Despite what had happened, Naia could see Draugen was looking infinitely depressed. Naia attempted to change the topic, “Well, human society has had these issues. One could even argue that Tyrants may change the terms too.”

“We are changing terms in the human world aside well changing their face structure if we punch them?” 045 asked and they all had to snicker a bit, except Draugen who did not focus at all at anything.

“Well, yes,” Naia was getting concerned about Draugen, “You see for some humans, Tyrants would be neurotypical, because well, you are doing what you are expected to do but to others you would even alter the term as what is neurotypical then can be highly questioned. “ she continued, “I met a Ivy Guardian today, or Ivy Zombie as they are called, who was rejected by Gerechtslinde and was painfully called ‘reject’ by many of the scientists too because it can be considered he is Neurodivergent. And, so some people were being discriminatory against him.”

“Wait, you are talking about Bulbs, right?” 032 asked.

“Yeah, but we gave him a new name. Naia did. He is called Askafroa now. Or, Aska.” Nemesis informed them all, “it’s apparently a human mythological name for well you know a tree guardian.”

“Wait, what happened to Bulbs – I mean Askafroa?” Slevin spoke up, “Is he okay?”

Naia wanted to know how Slevin knew about him, “Oh, yeah, he was taken to med labs because he was bleeding and not well.”

“So, he is finally being taken care of.” 053 looked really happy, “You see Slevin you don’t have to bring him bandages and food anymore.”

Everyone turned to him. Slevin rubbed his head, “Oh, shut up, 053.”

“But it’s true!” 053 looked at Naia, “Slevin used to take care of Askafroa. He was really nice to him too. We all liked it. Aska didn’t really talk to many people or trust them so we were happy Slevin took care of him.”

“Thank you, Slevin.” Naia brimmed, “That is really kind and empathetic.”

“Then why does he need to come to the class then:” Draugen muttered still looking down. He was furious. He was so angry and hurt. He felt completely messed up even before he was humiliated by Gresham. No one paid attention to his comment.

Naia opened up a web page about people facing discrimination due to neurodiversity, “As you can see in this webpage. There are micro-aggressions, things people may passively-aggressive do with Neurodivergent people, I believe they may also do so with Tyrants who they expect to be completely like humans or well, listening to human orders all the time. For example, this one, punishing people for not meeting expectations. I know there is a history and historiographies of Tyrants being called really bad insults when they accidentally desecrated sacred graveyards or buildings, or disintegrated important human places or have acted in ways, which were not, to a human socially acceptable. In a way, it is not right. It is not easy for Tyrants all the time to navigate a human world. Also, to demonise Tyrants, like there is an demonization of Tyrants in mass media, may affect you guys negatively. Or, using what we may call ‘ableist slurs.’ For example, when a human being have depression and they are frequently called ‘lazy’ and other such things, it disenfranchises the fact they are depressed. It can, without even neurodiversity, be considered ageist, when human beings are targeted due to being older than others thus not ‘supposed to be’ in some spaces. A recent study has talked about how modern human world and consumerist culture has inappropriately used human life based on productivity values, which are also criticised by neurodiversity spectrums. In olden societies, older people still stayed as council or as storytellers and dispensers of knowledge but in today’s world some mainstream cultures like to treat people in their 60s and up as replaceable and not at all valuable. This is because they are not ‘productive’ to the notion of the world of some mainstream societies today, which is not at all accurate. They are treated as useless and obsolete.”

Wow, humans face this too, huh? Nemesis pondered. Eyed a sullen Draugen.

“So, I was thinking.” Naia closed the projector and laptop, and fixed the blinds, “Maybe, you may want names?”

The Tyrants who had none looked up. Most of them seemed excited. 089 smiled. “Well,” Naia continued, “If you do. Why don’t you tell me what you want to be called in the next class? We meet on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Class is usually an hour or an hour and a half. Thursday’s classes are at 6pm and Friday classes may alternate to morning or night depending on your schedules. I have a chalkboard online and well I decided to give you guys a reading assignment. It’s the first three chapters of the book _Why We Love_ from 2004. I uploaded the chapters as I know the Adamantium library may not have all the books. I know it is a human based book, but love also has facets in evolutionary psychology and I wanted to know what Tyrants think of about love. And maybe next class we will learn a bit of different spatial aspects within different animal species as well after some discussion on the love. I also have given a rough sort of syllabus on the online chalkboard so look into it.”

Draugen got up, “I don’t know if I am coming on Thursday and guess what? I don’t like reading.” He sullenly was leaving when he paused and looked at Naia, “Hey, I am sorry. The class wasn’t bad.” And he left.

“Uh,” Naia looked at him, “Okay. So maybe, when you guys come to the next class you can tell me as well why you chose the names you did. We may read some books here too. And, uh, I was thinking you guys maintain a semi-scientific blog. Like, only I can read it or anyone else in the class you give permission to. I am a person who specialised in cognitive psychology with human students and we did the same thing. Don’t worry you guys are lucky. This class doesn’t really have grades. I mean. It is strictly for learning. The blog is there to make me see if you understood the materials and well what you think what was taught. And, please bring in anything you think about Tyrants and/or humans you think are interesting or any other BOWs.” Naia looked energetic, her energy seemed infectious, the Tyrants liked it, Slevin in particular consciously fawned at her, “I know we did not really do much today. It was just the first class but we will do more on Thursday. Well,” she looked at them “Class dismissed.”

She started looking through the list and saw everyone attended. The Tyrants said bye to her. Nemesis walked up as they all filed out. “Wow,” she looked breathless and then giggled, “God, that was….” She laughed, “So nerve-wrecking.”

“Well, you did not look like it but at times you _smelled_ a bit nervous.” Nemesis had to admit she hid it well and then he smiled, “That was nice. I liked being here. It was different. You did good.” Though he twiddled his fingers and a tentacle.

“Thank you, Nemesis. We can go now. Lemme just put my laptop back in.” She was putting it in a sleeved green laptop bag with some vines drawn on it when Nemesis cleared his throat a bit.

“Uh, Naia….” He looked down, “I need to confess something. Well actually two things.”

“Yes?”

“I kinda looked at some of your photos in your gallery I will show you which ones. I am sorry but I got interested.” He still looked down.

“Oh okay.” She couldn’t fully get mad at him. He looked ashamed as it was.

“And, uh…” he looked up, “I can’t really read or write or use the computer very well…I am what you humans would call somewhat illiterate.”

* * *

“Well, how did you like her class?”

Draugen was annoyed. He tasted the whiskey as Gresham sat down opposite him. Draugen liked his room and these huge armchairs he had. They were comfy.

“Yeah, she taught us about, neuro-typical and some divergent stuff. She isn’t bad.” He kept drinking and poured himself another glass. And ate some fruit as Gresham had allowed him. It was midnight now. People in some of the labs would still be working but their residential block was quiet. In fact, no one really lived in this section aside Gresham. He was one of the heads and had his privacies.

“Interesting. Did you enjoy it?”

“She gave Bulbs a name and now 077 is Slevin.” He drank some more.

“Maybe you should return to the class” Gresham drank his own glass.

“What and read more, Gresham?”

“It would be useful to see if you learn something there and well you know I can always send someone else but it’s not like we are spying on here. She sent me what she was teaching today and I did enjoy it.” Gresham smiled.

“She wants us to read on a love book and tell us what Tyrants think on it.” Draugen shrugged.  
  
“And, I thought you would be interested in showing off all about love you know.” Gresham chuckled.

“Oh c’mon. But read on it. Rather why can’t we all just do her or something?” Draugen joked and Gresham laughed.

A quiet, “You are not telling me exactly why you fucked up, are you?”

“I am sorry.”

“I know.”

“He was…He was an asshole. I just wanted him to know his place that’s all.”

Gresham smiled, “I believe you. Next time don’t go overboard or else I will cut off some of your tentacles and spray some fire on them.”

Draugen shuddered, “Of course,”

“You will go to the class though. Get reading.” Crossing his legs as he drank.

“Do I have a choice?” Draugen groaned.

“Nope. And, you know it.”

Draugen felt all his misery wash on him. Even if he talked to Kontane he was frustrated and had been hungry. Then Slevin ignored him. Now, he was called Slevin and even Nemesis knew it but not him! He was so angry that Vanessa taunted him and Gresham humiliated him. He downed the drink in one go.

Got up and marched towards an amused Gresham. Picked him up by the shirt, easily in one go and have him wrap his legs around his waist and kissed him. Gresham clawed the back of his head. They began their usual dance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yup, Draugen has issues. Naia has to prep classes. People have to choose names. Jill has to get along with Nemesis. Nemesis has to deal with learning how to do those things. Frieda gotta take care of Aska. Aska gonna maybe be happy. Vanessa seems jealous that 089 don;'t wanna do her. 089 don't care. 053 flirted with Nemesis. 022 actually laughed. 045 and 032 thinks highly of Nemesis. Slevin is being Slevin. And, where is Leon and Nian Zhen? They probably having tea in the Burgundy cafeteria. 
> 
> Well, please comment and review. Helps me keep on trucking!


	8. Crazy Kind of Help

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let us move onwards. *smut ahead*

**Crazy Kind of Help**

To him, there was no mastery to urgency. For need. He was a creature born to wrap himself in chaos and violence. In determination and all of the carnages he could commit. Yet, he was always hungering for more things. Hungering for so much more and how could he not? The beauty of the skin under him, puzzled him, excited him, made him want to mark and protect all the same. He proceeded to lap around the chest and tongue the nipples, so soft yet so, suggestive to his tongue. If only. If only this could last all the time. Yet, he should know by now. Hoping for this would not help. He knew when he began what it meant. It was deemed to end. In a poor taste in his tongue. Yet, he felt he had nothing. All of this made sense to him...for now. He wanted to kiss and suck the chest and nibble it, mark it with affection, frustration, admiration and lust. Baptise it with the demonic maw of his mouth. The human-like, yet only so little. He would crave the moans like a beggar’s alms. His only currency to feed himself of this. How could he wanted or needed aside this? He never knew. Never asked. After all, what was the point? He was a BOW and he did not get many choices in his life. He was meant to be a ‘slave.’ No. Worse than a slave and livestock (if he could compare). He was a whore-ass weapon. And, even now. He felt as a weapon teasing the flesh of the sadistic, controlling, manipulative, beautiful human, whose flesh called him like a siren and regurgitated him like a Venus fly-trap. Yet, he coveted. Like a sleek wolf meant to endure the mate’s claws 0r the prey’s hooves and be prey to the jaguar on his back and throat. Gresham made him feel he could be so many things.

Like some layered being. Even if it hurt knowing he was still a weapon, now of sex and not necessarily war (though that was debatable) he still yearned for this all the same. Panted as his own sex felt the heat of the other. Mewled as he dropped, like some elegant rag-doll, Gresham on the bed. Ripping off his leathers as though they were actual ‘limiters’ now — not allowing his orgasm to ‘mutate; to swell to the full glory of its zenith. Gresham had, biting his lip like some sweet coquette, looked at his urgency as if he owned it. He did. Own it. He knew his body, his tongue and his wit had ‘tamed’ the Tyrant. What other sweet victory for now could he want? Draugen stood naked before his ‘master’ or whatever he was — labels made no sense to them and they hardly used any. This wasn’t a negotiation. It wasn’t necessarily mutual. Draugen knew, if the other had been willing, he would have gladly wanted to understand love with him. The partnership, the trust, the intimacies, the fuck-till-you-drop feelings of being made to feel safe to express your desires, kinks and pleasures, guilty and chaste. Yet, such an offering was never offered and it was close to impossible. Draugen knew where he stood. Even before the bed, naked and looming over this human he could possibly easily break like a candlestick, he held no power, no real agency and it did pain him. But pain was something he had become used to. A second skin. Onto his molted first. The act of sex with Gresham made him feel more of a parasite than a person. Maybe some primal need was pleased with it? Maybe. Yet, he did not feel anything he wanted to feel. Not all the time anyway. He was just a sad person. A sad and angry person who would take what he could have. Beggars couldn’t be choosers as they said. Weapons couldn’t be too choosy anyways.

A question tugged at him: Did he want a relationship with Alaric Gresham? Maybe. Maybe not. There were the times the idea had appealed. Other times, it made no sense. Alaric seemed more robotic than Tyrants or other BOWs. Sometimes, it perturbed him. Could human beings be as such? Did they pride themselves above it? With Gresham, the pride seems to be placed on acting in such ways and being human enough. It seemed a bit sinister and naturally unnerving. He did not imitate emotions though; he did feel them even ones of pleasure with Draugen. It just seemed he was never too attached to them. He did not want their familiarities in his ‘subject’ or mostly in many ‘objects’; he chose a bit too much and acted on too little. It was a form of selfishness interpellated into his pride. Anyone knowing him would not like such a thing as ones who did not know him. Yet, he was still able to charm and to easily seduce. After all, with his whiskey glass, he had been sitting in a position of an invitation. Draugen did not challenge with one of his own. Draugen did not resist his temptations. He willing fell hard. And, Gresham knew he would. He knew him well enough by now to know he would. That he needed the comfort or rather the pleasure of fucking. That his golden boy Tyrant was exasperated and tired and most probably hungry. He had fed him first, waited so he does not fall asleep and let his pose do the work.

Draugen prided himself on his strong erection. His cock larger than many humans, yet adaptable to them. His coveting cock stood to attention. He stroked it and looked at Gresham, lovingly, “Open wide, Alaric.”

Gresham chuckled. He had got himself to a sitting position and sucked off the Tyrant. Kissing and licking his dick too. Draugen started breathing and growling heavily. Gresham gave such a good blowjob. He loved that commanding mouth on his cock; breaking it in as Gresham’s bitch. It did not care if he was receiving it. He felt only Gresham could make him moan like this with a tethering of tongue and light teeth and whole lot of saliva as if he was more of a food. Draugen couldn’t contain himself. In some moments, he released a load into Gresham’s mouth. Roaring.

“Oh, my.” Gresham chuckled a bit more, “I should have taken off my clothes.”

Draugen looked at some of his cum on Gresham’s lab coat and shirt, trailing a bit on his trousers. He wanted to apologise. After all, the clothes he wore looked classy and expensive enough. He was one of the lead scientists and head of the facility and he dressed to impress so as they would say. Draugen tilted his head. Alaric looked beautiful, with his light brunette, piercing passion filled eyes and smooth face, he jogged almost everyday and monitored his diet to his needs so he had a semi-athletic build mixed with a certain sort of lankiness. It worked on his body like some muscular sheath and it impressed the muscle heavy Draugen who was built to be powerful, sinews and tendons and all. His body excited him; how could Draugen resist? He took the semen and trailed it up and licked it a bit but shoved it Gresham’s mouth and see Gresham hungrily suck it, “My Golden boy is tasty...mmm...isn’t he?”

They kissed again and Draugen lost himself. Feeling all his stress, humiliation, weary and anything that pissed him off melt in Gresham’s mouth; like some delightful abyss gobbling him up. He didn’t care if he was devoured by Gresham. He knew what he wanted was not at all possible. But the desire to belong to someone, as in be someone’s important person, was something he feel he wanted. After all, he had wondered why Tyrants could not want it? Or, rather, was their lives so ‘simplified’ to not want this ‘complexity’? He wanted to forget the motions of thoughts even if they nudged him. Rather, he wanted to feel the elusive promise of being tongued by his boss who was okay playing his whore if only for some moments. And, he his. The thought help make him have a boner again as he stroked Alaric’s erection. Hearing him softly pant and moan was enough to grill him through than other forms of adrenalin.

“Suck me off slut.”

“Yes, most certainly. Your slut will do that.” Draugen smiled as he strongly licked and tugged Gresham’s dick with his tentacles. He loved being called his ‘slut’. He even called him his ‘slut’ too. Made him happy.

“Oh fuck me, oh….” Gresham twisted, “You are so fucking good at this!”

“I aim to please.” he licked his lips and continued sucking off Gresham with force, groaning as he did love this human’s feisty cock. He was so fucking pleased to see this man in the throes of passion from his mouth.

“Why did you have to make me angry, huh? I threw that kettle on your face…” Gresham grabbed his head and clawed onto his back.

“Take this as my sincerest apology then.” Draugen caressed his face and went back to sucking. Making noises indicating how much he loved sucking this cock. Gresham couldn’t hold on. And, Draugen hungrily swallowed it all, loving the taste of this human’s semen. So filthy, yet so yummy. Gresham seemed out of breath and he licked and sucked his body as he had helped him be nude. Biting carefully on his neck too. Feeling the beauty of his pulse and the tenderness of his neck. He nuzzled him. Draugen held Gresham close like his prized treasure. He softly kissed his breathless lover. He knew Gresham was tired too. Being a lead scientist couldn’t be easy. All those reports, calculations and experiments. All of those responsibilities. He licked his face and his sweat. He had this cocky form of beautiful to him. Draugen felt they could be the same in some respects. Though, Gresham may not admit to have it with a Tyrant? He did not know.

“Want me to fuck you good, baby?” he asked Gresham, happy if he could top or bottom, each way was pleasant to him. And, he was happy switch. Most Tyrants were or at least performed it even if some preferred one position to the other. In other respects, Draugen knew he was mostly straight. Yet, his sexuality was complicated. He found female or femme forms interesting more than male or masculine forms and if he did like men it was a lower percentage. Yup, complicated sexuality.

“Fuck yes!”

Draugen smiled as he balanced himself on top of Gresham, making sure his weight was properly shifted as not to hurt him. He had licked and sucked and so he began to fill up the sweet spot and the thrust were only slow for a moment before excitement and pure red hot desire overrode patience and he started slamming inside Gresham growling and scratching the tough enough bedsheets, which seemed to have made silky but durable for his kind. Gresham started screaming in pleasure and clawed his back as he moved his hips and let Draugen slam into him and he felt the Tyrant hit his spot over and over as his tentacles wrapped around his body in sinewy, sweaty trails and squeezing and tracing his limbs, his ass and his cock making him feel full on stimulated. Draugen did not know if he could keep up. He was a bit exhausted but so eager to please and be pleased. His tentacles captured the pheromone readings of Gresham in sweet ‘shocks’ of sensations, like light and blinding flashes, at times mixed with colours; he dropped his tongue, all slick with saliva out in pleasure. The Tyrant tongue dripped hot and warmly over Gresham’s nipples and belly making him whimper at the sweet pleasure.

“Oh fuck, you tentacle fuck, you owning me as a bitch, huh?” Gresham bit his lips, “God, you know how to be my perfect fuck don’t you?” he licked Draugen’s cheek and teeth, “That’s it, big boy, slam it into me!”

Draugen needed no more encouragement. This rough sex suited him especially after feeling he couldn’t do shit right. Also, the way Gresham was rolling and moving his along with him was hypnotic as it was and he just felt this unfathomable urge to kiss him all over as he did him. He satiated this with a deep kiss on his mouth and forehead and continued his deep rhythm uninterrupted; only pausing for a few seconds to hear a moan from him or hear his own growl and catch his breath. They moaned, he roared and growled as he climaxed into Gresham with such a powerful voice he felt his throat went a few floors down. Gresham screeched as he came all over Draugen’s taut stomach.

It took them a moment to compose themselves. Draugen cleaned himself with a wet cloth and proceeded to also wash Gresham with care. He smiled when he saw Gresham almost dozing off, his cheeks and body flushed and he caressed an d squeezed freely. He licked his nipples again and just felt this possessiveness come over him, which she struggled to keep at rest. _Why is this not more possible?_ His heart ached as he washed who could be his lover but chose not to. At the same time, he did not feel as excited any more. He was hollowed out too much. As if in his orgasm, there lay a bigger death than petite morte. Gresham ruled with an iron fist even in the bedroom. Too much iron could kill. Even a Tyrant like him, the lord of overkill, felt this was an excess of distance. Yet, all he could do was accept what he could not change. Nor did he wish to change it fully. Their haphazard arrangement worked for him for now. And, he wasn’t one to look at a gift cock for warts.

They cuddled a bit. Draugen liked Gresham’s bed as its sheets were of better quality than the ones in the Tyrant dorms. Well, humans had more sensitive skin. Something, Tyrants did not necessarily enjoy and longed and loved to see in human lovers. Who could work sensitivity on Tyrant skins and make them feel more sensual during lovemaking. Draugen had heard the term ‘hedonist’ by overhearing Byron once in the labs talking to a colleague about a recently fired scientist who had been slacking off and going to the bars in the facility. There were only three in total: Burnt Sienna, Cameo Pink and Cadmium Red. The last being the largest one though alcohol intake had to be for moderation and the bars had less active hours. It functioned as the smaller human cafes to help accommodate guests of import rather than facility staff though weekends usually allowed the employees to de-stress. The fired employee had been caught stealing from the bars and staying after hours. Unlike Nian Zhen, a useful alcoholic who never stole a bottle and was a lead scientist, they could not ignore this man’s lack of efficiency and addictions. Byron called him a poor hedonist. And, Draugen felt it was easier for humans to be hedonists with their sensitive skins, sweet tongues and seeming vulnerability. For Tyrants, their impregnable bodies hurt to enjoy things at times to the fullest of their capacities. Tyrants were bred for war; humans seemed to be bred for pleasure. He wondered if the choice was his, maybe he would easily choose the latter.

He caressed Draugen’s hair and envied he had none. Marvelled at the nerves he might possess which he did not. Apparently, hair was ‘dead’ yet felt to nice. Looked better than his skin he was thinking. The smell of shampoo and the sweetness of the way his hair wrinkled in his touch invigorated him. He stayed close as Gresham rested a bit after their intense and rough sex. He could see some mild bruises on Gresham and he could feel the nails on his back and he smiled at them. “Well,” he knew that sound and he dreaded it, he knew what Gresham was saying, “You should go rest, Draugen.” There it was, no time wasted, no time longer, he was being asked to leave, “You can take the day off tomorrow if you like. Remember to eat what you want. You need to get into shape. Oh yes, do prep for that classes.” He kissed Draugen’s cheek, “See you later.” he winked.

Draugen slightly smiled. He knew the routine. He couldn’t stay. Even if part of him wanted to Gresham did not allow him the illusion he could stay in his bed as lovers did. Gresham did not seem to care about humans he bedded too, who if allowed to stay the night, was kicked out early in the morning. He did not seem to pine any attachments and liked the arrangements he had made. Draugen knew it was not personal yet he did feel a personalised singe at being gracefully kicked out of his quarters especially after doing such a good job of fucking him till he was out of commission. Every time, he has hoped, with each stroke and obedience, he may be allowed to stay, once. Nope. Not happening. And, he was beginning to ponder if Gresham knew this and worked him anyway as the deep fuck was something they both craved and he could use his need for intimacy as a double-edged sword. It was a vile tactic and seemed to work in intervals. Draugen was not stupid. He just had needs and they could spill out. Though he controlled his expectations with Gresham fairly well. He knew the man was unreliable for affection.

Draugen walked in the empty hallways quietly. He went to a shower room for Tyrants and helped the machine scrub him over for evidences. Tyrants could read pheromones well enough if left unattended. And, even if some people suspected or even knew of him and Gresham he preferred to not feed them their chances of being entertained. Though he felt awful. A part of him wanted to cry. He was feeling depressed when he went back to the room. He saw Slevin was sleeping and so was 022. 089 may have gone to the bathroom or was in the library (he had a special permit). The clock read 3am and he was exhausted to the core. He slept in the nude on his back. Feeling wretched yet a bit refreshed from the day’s toils.

* * *

“Why would you come here asking for such a help?”

“Oh, Helen. We usually educate the Tyrants. Of course, she would come to us. Why are you always so stubborn?”

“Why are you always so lenient?” Helen Kensley looked annoyed at her colleague, “ You should understand we are all very busy in educating and researching Tyrant biology, psychology, anatomical variations, Super Tyrant manifestation and control, limiter technology and data cultivation as an information apparatus for further imprinting and study. We don’t have time to teach a prototype from the 90s basic reading and writing skills. They should have helped update his body a bit further when they assembled like they did to the other one. Apparently, your Nemesis was a tougher case to crack. It is a complete hindrance to have Tyrants not be as efficient as they are designed to be. The only reason I had even been somewhat okay with Nemesis is because he,” now looking with some excitement in her usual stern face, “would teach Draugen to be the very best. A newer NE-v T type who has a more diverse and sturdy parasite embedded and who is moving faster than many Tyrants. Now, there is efficiency at its finest.”

“Foe and Nergel are really good too.” Agatha Wagner looked seriously annoyed, “I mean most Nemesis types came from the blueprint of the Nemesis who she is talking about right now. You can’t just ignore him. Besides, he would need basic reading and writing if he is to teach your Molty Golden boy, Draugen. I heard he got enrolled into Naia’s class.” she pointed, “And the Nemesis is there too. It would an extension of the mentorship and I do believe,” she smiled bright with an infectious enthusiasm, “It would help Draugen be more responsible.”

Naia was liking her already, “You are right. I do think in the long run it would benefit everywhere.” then she stopped to ask, “Wait, is Draugen coming back to class? He said he wouldn’t.”

“And, you believed him?” Kensley looked at her with a smirk of condescension, “You must be not so wishy-washy. You must drop the naivety at the door. They are Tyrants. They do not simply have the will to reject what they _can_ and _cannot_ do. Surely, you must know this as their basic function, don’t you? In the future, care to remember it.” She folded her arms in seeming triumph, “Though Dr. Gresham should understand it would not be of much help. It is not an aptitude based class, no grades, nothing — it is a waste, a terrible waste on time and resources. In that time, we can examine Draugen’s brain scans, have him eat and train and dispatch for missions.” ‘

“Well,” Naia was disliking Kensley, “Dr. Gresham thinks they are important to Draugen. Why don’t you say what you said to me to him and see what his responses are?” she immediately lost her smirk and looked at Naia, “I know I am not an esteemed doctor as yourself, but the adage ‘all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’ may work here in the _simplest_ way possible.” she stressed on it making Wagner giggle but Kensley looked inflamed with both irritation and embarrassment, “Tyrants have potential to learn grow like humans.”

“But. They are NOT humans.” Kensley stressed on this, as if digging her shoes to the ground.

“More so, they should learn and be efficient. Additionally, Nemesis would not be setting a good example to Draugen if he does not know how to read and/or write. You are aware Draugen dislikes most authority but as a ‘weapon’ as you state he needs to also feel the authority over him is worthy of his respect if they too are a Tyrant. Nemesis joined my class and Dr. Gresham has not at all objected to it. So, as I stated earlier, tyrants have potential and if you want them to be useful you shouldn’t be a barrier to their potential.”

Kensley looked severely annoyed. It would not be an understatement to say she was suppressing a deeper fury under her tight lipped face. To have a newcomer challenge her authority so blatantly would not do. So, she formulated, a punishment, if one could call it, or rather accurately an ‘unfairness’ : “Sure, if this is what you feel helps _train_ Draugen. However, if it yields no results. You know, it _seals_ Nemesis’s fate, don’t you?”

A flash of anger readily came on Naia’s face, which pleased the tyrannical woman, “You know.” she started, Kensley waiting for her to speak, “The validity of Nemesis’s fate is thankfully not on you. I think you are aware of that.”

The short-lived triumph came crashing down as Kensley looked shocked and Naia looked pleased with a smile. “What...What do you mean?”

The nervousness did please Naia. She did not like cock-sure people like her anyways, hell, she wasn’t really a fan of Gresham either but here she was glad he was around, “If I _fail_. The failure will be shared by all of _us_.” she stressed it, Wagner had to slightly smile as Kensley’s eyes widened, “After all. Whether an older model or not. You teach Tyrants. Gresham has not complained of Nemesis in my class yet. If he keeps on approving it means he, Byron and Nian Zhen would want results from all of us. I may be your junior, and you two leading scientists, but we have to _bear_ the burden _together_.” she smiled sweetly, “It may not look on both of you lead scientists to not help me out and fail to do something, which the Arrkoth Facility prides itself in. Besides, who knows our projects may help Gerechtslinde. Thus the results could be reaped together as well. We should be united in our efforts then.”

Wagner hid her smile. Kensley did not hid her fist clenching, “You say a lot Miss Nazari.” she looked with hate at Naia, “I hope you can deliver on your promises.”

“I intend to try to do everything I said because it is not only my job. After meeting with the Tyrants, I know it is my duty. You may call me Naia.” she spoke with determination and a wild flame in her eye.

“I rather not.” Kensley looked perturbed by her. How was she like this? Wasn’t she just some hack of an undergrad? Why was she being so bossy and so motivated? She had thought Gresham was simply being playful, as usually was, when he introduced Naia Eve Nazari’s resume and work reports, and she had dismissed it as a form of joke. Naia had no major publications aside one paper, she took longer to finish undergraduate studies due to not being the best student and having depression, there were more qualified people around. Better people, who have studied more extensively. Yet, Byron also seemed comfortable and _happy_ she was scouted by Gresham and had spoken highly on getting someone who had worked with people in a community college! Happiness and Byron did not usually go. It was the usual, ‘logic and loyalty go hand in hand’ bullshit Gresham spouted. Or, was it? Did he want the loyalty Nazari here displayed to Nemesis? Was he hoping for her base devotion to triumph the so-called limitations of science? Then she had overestimated Gresham and he was a fool! Though, Nazari had not at all backed down from her, which had surprised her. She had been a depressive case who was apparently bullied a lot and told to take a hike by so many people, covertly and overtly. She had expected a meeker and pliable personality. In fact, she had wondered if Gresham and some others wanted to cute, chubby lay or something. Scientifically, she did not know what benefits were to had by making Nemesis more literate. He was an older model; a washed up who failed to killed STARS. Should they even care about him? Gresham and Byron had felt his resilience to leave; the remnants of the parasite crawling out of the crater of its own entrails and refuse was something to consider. Though by the time it had relegated its own mission directives and just simply WANTED to LIVE. As if, it or he or whatever, was ‘alive’ aside those protocols and principles there to govern him. What good can come from milking this dry cow? The horse was ready was the glue house and was, in fact, being used as a data glue until this bitch came along.

Hensley looked at Naia. Her breasts were big, her hips curvy and chubby and she had what could be considered fat in all the right places and extra. Yet, she did not seem to evoke any lack of ‘beauty’ — traditional symmetry had reigned  supreme and it changed a lot. Wider hips and narrower waists and at times the waifish look with the short hair.  Naia asymmetrical body-type contained its own symmetry and she did not like it. It was true Naia not only defied her with her tongue and wit, but she challenged a n Eurocentric standard of beauty as well, with her lustre hair coloured in purples complimenting its natural reds, her honeyed skin and her dark, big eyes. She looked like a over-petalled rose, where even the thorns hid yet added to the effect of fullness. It was the _fullness_ she also abhorred. The fullness of life, speech, intelligence energy, loyalty and body that all was charted in her own golden ratio. Yes, she had a read on her intelligence. She may not be as polished as them, she may lack some of their intricacies and experience and even esoteric frameworks on scientific relations, yet her  **willingness** to  **learn** sparked the very Greek fire of competition. Curiosity and Learning go hand in hand and could become deadlier than any paragon of the paper. She needed to be careful. Naia already had give a strike and those thorns could work like the vines of Gerechtslinde. 

Agatha Wagner looked at the new colleague with pride. Both she and Helen, were in their sixties. Helen rarely allowed people to use her first name and she hardly talked about her childhood and past. All she knew was on the documents, Helen Kensley finished studying at a private school and due to her prowess in physics and biochemistry was educated on it, getting a grant for it and finished her PhD at eighteen years of age (she had converted her Masters and had started to work in research when she was younger). She was a prodigy who worked hard and in the seventies and eighties it had a bit easier to skip certain levels of education and go into higher forms as lesser people went to university and the current state of affairs required prodigious students. Helen hardly got challenged in her life. She stayed unmarried for a while and had married when she was twenty-five. She has a son and daughter though Agatha had noted she and her husband were almost separated. He did not visit them often at Arrkoth Facility and when he did he did not seem impressed by anything. She did not talk much of her daughter, who also seemed distant. Her son worked here sometimes as he was also a scientist. Though, he was based in astrophysics and so was her daughter. She had only offered names to her: Oswin Kensley-Lennox and Elyse Lennox. 

And, by now, she knew Helen Kensley did not like being challenged. She was an orthodox scientist, who loved results and was conservative towards Cartesian logic of mind over anything else and Logic reigning all. Compared to her, Kensley has always been a stickler to rules, regulations. Progress happened for with the hegemony of facts and logic. She had resented working with Wagner. Even in their last job they had been together. They were somewhat rivals but more colleagues. Their friendship, if it could be called one, was mediated by their projects rather than emotional kinship. Wagner had attempted to break through but Kensley did not always enjoy it. The only personal things she had told her were she was happy she did not mix with her husband much and was happy if he philandered around. She liked her children though her daughter disliked her. She had grown to care little of it as she was ‘Daddy’s Girl.’  Oswin  seemed more relaxed with Agatha than his own mother . This had troubled Kensley and though she was quite an expert in hiding her emotions she had a hard time usually hiding them from Wagner. Agatha read it in the strain of eyebrows and the looking away.  Wagner knew she was so reserved so approaching her would be difficult.  Naia Nazari had made it known she was not going to be easily intimidated. The sly form of threat to Nemesis was dissolved by the counter threat that they were in this together: For better or worse. Wagner considered it less of a threat, in her perspective, and more of a researcher’s zeal and declaration. She enjoyed it immensely. 

Most of the young peers, interns, techs and colleagues under her were too invested in either ‘novel’ ideas, which may lead to dead ends (like attempting to bind bonzai type to Gerechtslinde, which she ‘cannibalised’ for competition; Wagner wanted more but the intern got daunted and threw a tantrum) or felt their superiority be mean, challenged her with half-baked ideas (finding a new type of plant to ‘replace’ Gerechtslinde; didn’t survive any form of coalescence and instead created deranged Ivy Zombie type mice whom had to be contained and the couple duo, a ‘she’ and a ‘he’, decided to call this a ‘failure to what they can accomplish’ and moved on), actually cause damage to Gerechtslinde by trying to have ‘it’ or ‘her’ mate with the bio-engineered Cherry Blossom making the Ivy Guardians start a cacophony and almost attack humans as a  defence mechanism. She liked  someone with initiative but lacking the  e go  issues . She found Naia knew herself enough and was confident yet not acting she was a bossy pants. Considering she understood she did to read, research and study more meant she was aware she had to master existing limitations. This was always a good start. Wagner herself had migrated to science after spending five years as a nurse. No one believe in her and she was mocked at a lot during those early years. She had actually treated Spencer and they had met because he had had an accident (not knowing at the time it was trauma and blood loss caused by his tampering with the progenitor virus) and she had taken care of him. The rest was history. She had never thought she would now be the new giant, as they called her, whose shoulders they said they wanted to reach. She had not affiliated with Umbrella during its years as a corporate tyranny. Spencer had been disappointed in her and she him. Yet, now she was able to make a new legacy out of it. Perhaps, it need not repeat the same mistakes?  Naia could be one of the new. She was willing to take a chance.

“Well,” Naia was not fazed at the turning down of using her first name, “Whatever you want, Dr. Kensley. At least, for my name.” she smiled. 

Kensley visibly snorted surprising both Naia and Wagner, “It’s just a waste.” 

“I think not.” Wagner smiled at her and Naia, receive the sharp edge of a glare, “Nemesis is interesting. I love his parasite self’s willingness to survive and I want to know more about him.” looking pleased and syncing her own enthusiasm with Naia’s, “I know I chat a lot about my affair with Spencer. I am not going to lie. I was going through some shit and I should have been more disciplined around the Tyrants. I am guilty as charged.” She chuckled warmly making Kensley roll her eyes and Naia smile warm at her too, “Yet, as you know, we have some other psychologist and now me and Kensley are updating our fMRI research on the brain of Lickers and Tyrants so we may not always be free. We usually even have our interns take class. They are qualified enough but we understand our whole teaching program is new and right now we are still laying what needs to be done on it. I will gladly help Nemesis as I can. Though, we could use an extra pair of hands. The more, The better. As you will also be super busy with your research.” 

“You can not expect me to teach that obsolete specimen.” 

“No one was asking you, Helen.” Wagner sweetly spoke to her, making Kensley do a “hmmph” and just not look at them. “I am thinking who would be most suitable. Patient enough.” She was thinking of names it seems as she pressed her index finger to and fro on her chin. 

“Do you have to think of this now, Wagner?” Kensley called out to her, “I am sure an intern —“

“It can’t be an intern, Helen.” Wagner pointed out sharply, Naia really appreciated it, “Interns can be sloppy, immature, impatient and they themselves lack discipline. It has to be someone of more steadiness in these matters.” 

“You are not taking anyone from my team.” Kensley stressed, “They have enough work as it is and I won’t have them babysit some lab case of a Tyrant.” 

“Could you please just call him, Nemesis?” Naia asked politely, “I don’t know what he has done to make you dislike him so much but at least he has a name.” 

Kensley stared at her with annoyance, “So, now you will police my words?” 

“I did not say it.” Naia looked nervous and Kensley smiled at her nervousness. 

“You implied it.” she wanted to go in for the kill. 

“I did not, Dr. Kensley.” Naia’s nervousness went off as she realised Kensley was attempting to bully her again. Naia’s inability to back down made Kensley mad inside. She knew this little chubs would be an issue. Now, she could affirm it again. 

“No one was asking you for your staff, Helen. And, for God’s sake, Naia’s right, just call him Nemesis.” Wagner spoke out making Kensley draw back. She was used to her disagreements with her colleague, “I know he is an older model but his designation is easier than coming up with new insults.” 

N aia  stifled a giggle and actually looked a bit nervous when Kensley gave her a really, fierce glare. “Sure, I guess.” she seemed to be talking to no one, “Well, if we are done here. I am going to go, oh, Miss Nazari.” she looked at her, Naia merely looked back, “I know you stated we share the rewards and failures. Seeing you are invested, I wish to share the rewards. Make sure you do a good job. Our team is already doing a lot for you. Utilise our generosity with maximum effect.” 

She left going back to her office and slammed the glass-wood door shut hard making some of the cubicle-scientists, doing paperwork, frizzled, including Naia. “I...uh…” she wanted to say something. Could not think of anything. 

“Don’t worry about her she sometimes is a grumpy tart.” 

Naia and Wagner both started laughing. A kinship in the making. “I still made it raw thought.” Naia offered, as a way of an apology to Wagner. 

“Nah, you said the right things. You are supposed to come to us anyway. It’s a given as we usually teach Tyrants and you are our colleague even though we rank higher in the bureaucratic hierarchy. You brought up some good points! Keep it up!” Naia was reminded of a very loving teacher she had in childhood with the kindness and support of Agatha Wagner, “I am so happy we are working together. This is going to be great you know. It is important we get this down. I don’t mind if Nemesis takes long to get better. It is normal for Tyrants his model to get things. We have data sets.” 

Naia nods, “I am glad you are being understanding.” 

“If Gresham does say anything I will tell him we could use this. Also, Nian Zhen would agree. You know it is helpful to us too. I mean, I am not being rude, but seeing Nemesis learn and studying his brain via scan could be useful. Also, I like Nemesis. You know it is great to always meet a cool Tyrant from the 90s. Most of the earlier Tyrant models were discontinued. So, we only have like storage samples and some morgue bodies. We don’t have enough to really study as much. Nemesis was the first NE-a T Tyrant model and now there are more though he is still _the_ Nemesis. The other person we have hardly talks and sits in a dark room all day. Tired at times but getting there. Still uses IV for food and nutrients. Nemesis going out and about is good. The other one is not used to having a new body. Well, he is having sensory issues we are tuning in to help with.” Wagner looked happy explaining the details. 

Naia looked confused, “Who is the other —?”

“Yes, you know who can help you!” 

“No.” 

“Rakin! Rakin Nasyrov!” 

Naia blinked, “I don’t know  who  that is.” 

“Well, he is like the Tyrant in the dark room. He never really walks around in the facility. He has some disabilities. When he was young, he was infected with a T-virus sample in a lab and he has not really recovered though he is lucky he is alive and not the living dead. His parents were scientists who worked for Umbrella. He is a great guy, sometimes grumpy, but not as Kensley and not as snobby too. I will talk to him and see if you guys can do something for Nemesis okay? I mean I know he is supposed to work in biochemistry but he decided to like do social media data study for the last year. To the irked nature of Gresham, Byron and Kensley. Well, he wanted to work on informatics a bit and see what other ways Tyrants can learn and grow. He should be your guy.” Wagner winked and looked excited, “I hope he is.” 

N aia went back. “Who is...the  _other_ one?  The Tyrant you keep mentioning? ” 

Wagner looked deep in thought, “Let’s see...uh...I always forget his name. I think he was also there in the 90s. Though he never actually met Nemesis.  I think like Nemesis he is really messed up from his battles. They gave him a signature name, what was it? What was it??” she started snapping her fingers, “Oh yes. Mr X. I has to be Mr X.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YASSSS X GONNA GIVE IT TO YA
> 
> The naming is happening. Next time. Stay Tuned. Will Nemesis learn to write and read better? Will Kensley slip and fall on her high horse ass? Who is Rakin? How is he useful? Was there is a reason I named Kensley's kids? What will Draugen do now as he is stuck in class? STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT EXCITING EPISODE! 
> 
> (Please comment blaowaha)


	9. Commit To Self

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, what can I say, this chapter really had a lot of mushiness in some ways. But I was happy writing it.   
> 9k words and I had to leave stuff for the next time xD  
> Onwards

**Commit To Self**

“Hey there Nemmy, what are you doing?”

Nemesis was in his quarters, or rather open labs. He did not live in a dormitory style room. His arrangements were different. A slight twinge made its way up to him. He did not like this difference as he was singled out. It made him realise more and more he was not on active duty. And, how gloriously he had failed his last mission. His ONLY mission. Despite feeling relieved and happy seeing Jill, he also felt very conflicted. It was no desire to do her harm. Whatever harm mattered had passed over twenty years ago. What bothered him now was his lack of duty aside teaching the rude Draugen. He wondered where the petulant asshole went off too. He had attempted to corner him but he did move fast. Of course, he was delayed, as he was talking to Naia. It didn’t comfort him still as he felt Draugen did get the better of him. There was no way he wanted to be upscaled by the overzealous brat in stalking considering he was already physically stronger. Well, he could triumph physicality. He had the experience. Still, stalking was his forte. He was not losing his edge, was he? He almost slumped for the sadness. He did not wish to become obsolete. It meant immediate termination. Though, inside he felt he hadn’t failed. Draugen didn’t not wish to be found and he seemed used to it? – as in this was something he was getting used to. During his search, he felt he should not tread further, as it was getting late and something told him Draugen could require privacy. He was not the usual prey but also his responsibility. The word had a very different meaning than it had before. It was preservation. Not, well, obliteration. Could a Tyrant preserve things? It seemed going against the essence of what a Tyrant was created for – though, a human creation deviated more commonly he noticed. So, he decided not to mull on it too long least he become frozen in place and not at all attentive to things he was wanting to learn.

“I…uh…” He did not realise who it was speaking to him. Until, he looked up and saw someone way larger than life and the model number ‘077’ and his unique scent (Tyrants could tell each other by scent as some of them looked similar; yet, they did have differences and humans could notice with some familiarity in their facial variations and proximity helped with acknowledging scent/musk as well). “Slevin?” He knew this Elite Tyrant’s name. He actually slightly smiled. Slevin had been the one to tell him to join Naia’s class. He should be thanking him. It was interesting. He was able to tell someone, well Naia, of not really being to read much or write at all. When he was in Raccoon City much information was imprinted in him so he understood street signs and the ability to read those and chase Jill, well before Brad who got bitten and ended his chase. He had been bothered by it. Seeing most modern Tyrants could read and well write. It seemed basic literacy skills was now factored in quite earlier. These new bloods enjoyed a lot. Though, there may be something of benefit from this too. Well, he could spend time with Naia. The thought pleased him greatly.

“Oh, sorry Nemmy. I was going to knock. But the gate is automatic and it is not locked at the moment, I think some techs are coming back. And, from what I know, it isn’t necessarily told yet to us to avoid talking to you or visiting you.” Slevin smiled, “So, I think I am in the clear.” He seemed energetic as Naia. Nemesis liked it more than he would have guessed. He had observed the other Tyrants in the class. 089 disturbed him a bit though he couldn’t quite place why aside the eeriness of his stoicism looking more pronounced in his Elite Tyrant face and looked more at home at the discontinued T-103 Tyrant model class. 022 seemed like a brooder, someone with quick moods as if something was missing, 053 was quite energetic too but he seemed a bit out of focus but Nemesis appreciated his amicability, 045 seemed a bit shaky and shy but overall nice, 032 looked very attentive and did not seem at all interested in Draugen’s childishness actions. They all seemed used to the way Draugen acted, which was a statement in and of itself. He did not know if he should feel relieved they knew about his antics or slightly concerned about his responsibility’s reputation to the general populace of Tyrants. Even within a closed room he seemed to be the spoiled brat. It did not certainly feel like the best thing, rather it was the opposite of best. Nemesis felt some sort of irritation befall him. This had to change! He could not be known as ‘the brat’s mentor’ it would be infuriating and it would make him descend further down this hole of relegations making him feel as archaic as a telephone (it seemed Jill owned the last one when he burst into her wall and he heralded their extinction).

“No. No. It’s okay.” Nemesis liked the visit and he had to admit he liked Slevin as he seemed quite approachable though he looked like he could shift gears easily and bash someone’s head in a wall and tip a hat goodbye, “So, is there something you wanted?” he questioned, in his own friendly tone, “Or, did you just come to visit me?” The last sentence sounded nice. He hardly ever got a visit. Slevin was nice and he actually was cute too with his observant eyes and his infectious smiles, which would give the T-virus a run for its money. Cute would not only be the word he would use to describe this giant. Handsome. Beautiful. Tyrants could sense each other’s prowess well enough if not masterminds at divination of bodies; Slevin muscles shone out in his fine leather of deep brown and silken, silver metals with an organic like sash protruding out and those sleek fingerless gloves and metallic plates resembling some archaic form of warrior jewellery. His presence, if not naturally calculative eyes (oh yes, 089 did not really fool; he was precise and laconic that one) bore down multi-layered power. Unlike regular Tyrants, even ashamed to say himself, Slevin’s first response was not always physical strength (089 and he seemed to share this) and he seemed to look for alternatives to violence so things could escalate at a fixed pace if they needed escalation. Almost like a beat by beat science experimental chaos bubble reading so if it burst the controlled reaction and explosion would be something to see. Nemesis liked his toned limbs too. They had strength yet moved in a _caring_ way. Nemesis realised he was fawning on a male Tyrant and smiled to himself. Who knew?

Though he had significantly noticed the beauty of Nian Zhen. In comparison to Gresham, he seemed to think Nian Zhen was the superior presence and person. Those luscious black locks also did it. “Well, a bit of both.” Slevin smiled and continued, “I did wanna see you Nemesis. I was really happy you came to our class too. I know this may sound strange but I was happy having a NE-a T type in our class too who wasn’t as noisy as Draugen.” He chuckled at him and Nemesis looked at him with some warmth, “And, you are older than us. You have experience. It would be so cool what you bring to the table.” Well, what did you know? Nemesis blushed a bit. No Tyrant told him this and showed well, respect towards him as though he was a senior in some military division. He liked it and as usual he wanted to work on this responsibility. Slevin may be nice but he was far from stupid and flattering did not seem his style. So, if he spoke something it meant he meant it and so he had to trust himself and trust Slevin’s judgment. After all, he already was showing him more respect than the bratty Draugen. It would be cool if Slevin was the one he was doing training sessions with.

“Though, I, uh, had some stuff to ask too. Did you see Draugen today after class?”

“No. He left before us after being his rude self and I have not noticed him.” Nemesis looked alert and wondered what this disappearance could mean, yet it assuaged him on being an ‘older’ model as if Slevin had troubles it did mean his theory on Draugen actively discouraging pursuit had salt. So, he did still got it. Though this made him curious as Draugen did not seem like the _type_ to do this. Unless, he had a special reason. What could such a special reason be? “Is something wrong?” he probed further, information was necessary. No one would suspect him bringing game wearing his hospital gown again. Well, he aimed to surprise. Just ask Jill Valentine.

“Well.” Slevin rubbed his head, “I mean I won’t bother so much about it. He does this you know. Disappear. Go to training grounds or courtyards. Maybe, even Bulbs – I mean Askafroa’s shed. In fact, once I went there to give Aska food and found him shaking Askafroa by the vines in some weird ‘massage’ game of to and fro and I had to tell him to stop or what if he snapped Aska’s vines off. Despite him being a rude jerk, I know.” Slevin smiled, with a sorrow it immediately piqued Nemesis’s interest, “He has heart. He can be sensitive and he can quite moody too. I think he feels alone from time to time. I know he knows he is not perfect but has to be in some ways, you know? Being the first functional NE-v T Type. I know it doesn’t excuse him at all. But that is still a lot of pressure on someone especially when he is one of the few Tyrants who well you know falls directly under Gresham and well Gresham has stabbed in him in the eye,” So, the scar came from it, “And, slaps him around a lot. Once Gresham even punched him in the library in front of me, 089 and 022 for making a spelling error on the word ‘Machiavellian.’ If Draugen hated the library, he hated it more then.” Nemesis had to admit, the entire incident sounded fucked up, realising Gresham was pretty ‘hands-free’ with Draugen and it did not sound pretty, “I know it does not excuse him being mean to Naia or being rude or being so bratty but usually he comes back. He may even punch tress in the courtyards much to the groundskeepers’ anger but I haven’t heard or seen a felled tree or splitting branches. I wonder what he is up to its all. I mean.” Slevin looked guilty, “I mean, I wasn’t entirely nice to him during the whole first class.”

“Well, he was being a dumbass and you did not like it. Draugen can’t throw his anger around like that. What had Naia done to him? And, Lewis, the tech? They were simply trying to help him and also do their jobs. I know failure can be a smarting pain. Trust me. I been there. I am still there because my one and only mission was to kill STARS and I failed in cosmic proportions.” He meant to allude to it, “Draugen is lucky he is a newer BOW and has all these advantages and he has many more missions to not fail. To succeed. He is not being thrown to an incinerator. So, there is no need to, as humans would say, lose his shit.”

“Actually,” Slevin started, “It is now illegal and forbidden by international law, both federal jurisdiction and global treatise, to incinerate BOWs in acid Vats unless there is no other recourse. It is never a primary and like land mines being banned it is actually a law having the capacity to bankrupt corporations or even mandating life imprisonment.”

Nemesis blinked, “Really?”

“Yes. People of Blue Umbrella even if some of them are basic jerk offs,” Slevin chuckled and Nemesis followed suit, “Follow it especially because they are Umbrella who used unethical means to dispose of and create BOWs. The UN has classified BOWs, in the Act of Interspecies Coalition of 2017, as living beings though debates on our ‘humanity’ or ‘sentience quotient’ continues it is deemed if a BOW has not done anything of any violent import it by now global law to leave them be. It has helped researchers collect samples as BOWs are not killed en masse but also, scientists and anthropologists have noticed, many BOWs, like Lickers, left to their own devices, do not always harm other life forms or the environment as much. The T-virus is re-engineered and reverse engineered retrovirus form of a progenitor virus originating from a flower so the T-virus inimical RNA data code variations are seeped to some capacity in nature. So, there is no real means of any of us harming the environment. Apparently the 2017 act was also overseen by one of our own Blue Umbrella executives, Tehzib Vohra, she was around China when the C-virus outbreak happened in 2012-2013 so many people trust her input.”

“What are you? Some Tyrant encyclopaedia? A database of historical Tyrant stuff.” Nemesis smiled, the more he heard Slevin talk he could see the expressions of someone engaged with his knowledge set, it was intriguing hearing someone who was basically a Tyrant archivist or repository of information; quite fascinating. If I don’t stop fawning he may think I wanna suck him off or something, Nemesis laughed internally, though he was curious, one of the first times he has a crush on a male person. Or, something akin to a crush. Attraction? Maybe. The last time he felt like this was when someone named Carlos Oliveira called him ‘Fuck Face’ and almost had a one up of him with a rocket launcher. If he did not use his fast tentacle to grab it he would have faced damage. He was annoyed royally; he had finally cornered Jill and this fucker has come out and he wanted to crush him. Hey, he had beautiful hair and a firm, muscular body. He had to love the way he didn’t seeing him approach him with a stalker’s gait intend on ending him as he fired the second round. Incapacitating him. Nemesis was furious as he watched, breathing slow, in the corner of his eye, as he picked up Jill and spoke of safety. His baritone voice was smooth, softer than his roaring one. It pleased him. As he watched him, he actually had shuddered hearing the voice. Subtly and subtlety was his stalker’s art. It had been a long time since he had a male crush. He was going to enjoy it. Well, he was a bit more focused on Jill…and, well, Naia. The flames Naia stoked now was something his parasite’s tentacles quivered and burned in the heat as a forge of iron and creation. Yet. He had not fully crushed on _another_ Tyrant before. Yes, the female Foe was in his radar. Though he hardly saw her and had wondered if she did any educational programs? Yet, this crush made him happy. After all, he was humanoid but not human in the classical sense of the word. Liking one of his own kind was quite pleasing in its own way too.

_Perhaps, I like the soft and fierce types like Naia and Slevin_ , he wanted to chuckle, though Jill was also somewhat in the category. He remembered her desperation in wanting to save Tyrell. Who had killed. He should apologise to Jill for that. He was so frustrated and angry but he remembered their comradery also infuriated him. After all, he was bled and busted and borne all his pain alone and she seemed to have no shortage of allies. He was _jealous_. It was an understatement. After all, his body, still a stalker, was pained in its rapid cellular mutations. He also did not fully like supporting his weight on four legs like some basic predator. He was actually not feeling like himself yet he pushed through. He was so relieved and _happy_ he was now speaking again and once again in the world of bipeds.

Slevin blushed, “I just read up on it.” He smiled, “And,” he looked serious, “You are right. I have told Draugen to chill. I just hope he comes back soon. So,” he tilted his head and smiled again, “Whatcha doing Nemesis?”

“Oh, studying what Naia gave us.” Nemesis picked up the handheld device. Their facility called their tablets, Stone, they did use iPads and Surface Pros as well but they seemed to have limited usage as most of the OS for their work loads was their Linux based OS called ROX. ROX mimicked windows to a degree was compatible with iOS and PC applications. They did have a limited contract with Microsoft and Apple and they preferred to keep it limited as they worked with sensitive materials, BOWs, a Big Ass Tree and Tyrants so they didn’t want anything like third party data mining and hacking to be something that happened on a regular. They even made their own antivirus app and codex called Spiel. Nemesis knew some of this as Naia had told him, including Hayden and Lewis. He did not know much about computers but he had known a bit. Naia had installed Spotify on his Stone. He had obtained one from Gresham who had it given it to him as a form of ‘gift’ as he was training Draugen. It did have most of Draugen’s schedule on it so Nemesis immediately it was more for business than pleasure. He had also wondered if he could spy from it. Apparently, Gresham hadn’t bothered. He did not know if he should have felt insulted or relieved.

Though, he had switched to Spotify, Naia showed how (basically, he had been using less of the Stone) as the reading materials for the class was getting to him. They were sensitive topics he did think about and now learning for them for a class? He just wished Naia did not directly ask him questions. Though as he could fully read the written text Naia had given him and Audible version of the book. In fact, she had made him a fucking account, put some credit on it and told him he could buy some books he found interesting. Nemesis immediately got ashamed. Naia was spending her money on him? He knew she wasn’t treating him as a pet or project because her enthusiasm made him realise she was innocuously helping him out. But, it felt wrong. She shouldn’t have to spend her money on him. It was hard earned wasn’t it? And, he did not have anything to give her. There was also an imbalance there he did not know how to solve. Even if he did good tasks as a Tyrant, he would not get paid, right? Unless, he worked for a freelance group or mercenaries. So, he wondered, what could he buy or give Naia. Though he had devised he was going to work out something with Gresham. Maybe, he could get a nice little ‘employee’ bundle at the Palanquin? He had smirked then. If he was able, maybe he could get some nifty stuff for Naia so he could pay back.

Much to his dismay, he also gave her a more than a decent pair of earbud headphones. He saw the skull symbol on them and the transparent casing and liked it. She noticed his smirk. “They are from Skull Candy. I had a gift card once and I got ‘em. You can have them. I ordered some new ones with my advance.” Adding when she saw him frown, “Don’t worry, I can see you wanna pay me back. Well, please come to class.” She bounced, “Study hard. I am bribing you.” He knew it was not true but he smiled anyways because of how cute and thoughtful she was being. It was not necessarily a gift he had expected from anyone but he knew she was trying to help him learn and was going out of her way to do it. All he had to do, was approach her, and tell her. He felt it then. No one else could have taught this course BUT her. Not anyone yet anyways.

She had even made him a Spotify playlist and showed him basic functions. Installed discord on his Stone. Showed him how to use it. Made a private discord server between them (he had shivered; she had not noticed) and called it something funny, he remembered it was a joke if Draugen would listen to him so she called it “Notice Me Senpai.” Because the app had a call functionality he knew he could and message Naia. Was happy now as he could. He did know how to input basic messages like ‘hi’ and all. He had to get cracking on the learning so he could get to more complex sentences. He had been listening to an Indie type song from an artist called Vérité called _good for it_ when Slevin came in.

“Oh, yeah Naia uploaded the audio book and the ebook for us. It is so awesome. I am happy I can read or listen to it. Sometimes, I just like drinking coffee and listening to a book.” Slevin looked really mushy as if he was revisiting something he loved, “Though I think 089 has already finished reading it in the past three hours. Maybe even a lot of the book she didn’t even assign and is now browsing stuff in the library. Our Stones do connect to the Adamantium Library, you know the Tyrant library. “Nemesis nodded, he had heard complaints about it too for redacted materials some people did find free copies of books or stuff online. He also heard from Hayden and Lewis, it was allowed by Byron, Gresham and the others as a form of knowledge hunt, though Nian Zhen did not fully approve, Wagner had stated it was nice to see Tyrant problem solving. Ironically, they did the same for some of their own human employees who bypassed daytime porn ban and limited free web usage on their work computers so Nian Zhen was not so piffed of it as there was some ‘egalitarianism’ in it, “Hey.” Slevin was looking at his Stone, “Your one looks hella customised. Like, wow. Lucky you.” Slevin looked envious, “Hey, it looks more for higher level human users than Tyrants or human techs and interns. I guess you truly are a mentor, aren’t you? The device puts an extra stamp on it.” Nemesis looked amused, yup, maybe the Stone made it more official than the label, “Oh yeah, we also use Spotify on our Stones. We are allowed one. Some Tyrants only use it and not any laptops. But you are allowed a Stone and a laptop. And, as they are manufactured by Blue Umbrella there are less cost deficits. Using tech efficiently is also what intelligent BOWs are supposed to be doing.”

So, Nemesis wasn’t the only one who was made to learn, it was nice to know even if he felt basic computer literacy was imprinted on them. “So, 089 reads fast?”

“089 is very efficient in almost everything.” Slevin says it as basic fact, “Most of the scientists and technicians have a crush on him. He usually doesn’t really have eyes for anyone though. I mean,” He blushed and rubbed his head, “He does have relations and stuff but he usually doesn’t like others much. Or, talk to others always in friendly terms.”

“But you two get along?” Nemesis smiled.

“Yeah, to be honest, I sometimes wonder why? We are quite the opposite you know?” Slevin asked and looked contemplative.

Nemesis thought to him and Jill, and him and Naia, “Maybe, that’s the appeal.”

Slevin almost blushed at his seemingly knowing smile, “No, no,” he seemed wanting to explain, “We are just friends.”

“So, he likes Vanessa then?”

After a moment of silence, they both burst out laughing, a thunderous Tyrant jubilation, which could probably scare staff walking in the halls to jump and sprint. “Oh come on, Nems, you know that is not true at all.” Slevin smirked.

“Then, do you deny 089 may like you?” Nemesis looked curiously, smirking, inviting Slevin closer, his blushes looking attractive and ghim appreciating their height difference. Actually, liking he was not the taller one for a change.

Slevin took the invite and actually sat down on the bed with him. Nemesis’s room had a big hospital type bed in it rather than a dorm bed. Nemesis did not love it much as it was in the centre of the room and also because it made him feel like he was always in a form of transit rather than being what humans would call ‘at home.’ There were more hospital equipment than room furniture and he was contemplating how it would be nice to live in a more suitable place that resembled a bedroom than a hospitalised lab space. “I mean,” hearing his voice, Nemesis stopped looking around and looked at Slevin, “I don’t know if he likes me in that way. He has never said anything on it. But I am glad we are friends. It’s funny. Sometimes, I think I am 089’s best friend.”

“What about you?” Nemesis was inquisitive, studying the handsome grey features of Slevin, “Do you feel something for him?”

“I am gonna be real with you. I don’t think its always friendship. AT times, we do share a chemistry seemingly out of friendship. But, it could only be thinking and feeling it.” Slevin explained and rubbed his head.

“I don’t know Slevin. If something he is doing is making you think such a thing perhaps he feels and thinks it too.” Nemesis understood this from seeing Jill and Carlos interact. If Jill began to dote on him, well he certainly made his actions worth doting on, showing her respect, giving her space and admiration. Respecting her boundaries and her skill. Aiding her when she needed and leaving her to her own to trust in her skills. Someone who cared would only do it this repeatedly and dutifully. In a same way, he in the opposite spectrum, had not wanted to kill her quick. After all, she proved to be such a frustratingly worthy adversary he wanted to drag out her kill. Ashamed to admit, he had wanted he to suffer but she had not necessarily wanted him to suffer. Just wanted him out of her life. Here was the difference, 089 did not want Slevin out of his life and neither did Carlos and Jill to each other. He remembered his small parasite remnant, weak and dying, close to dying as Jill had, as she had mentioned, knew how to fuck him up had crawled secretly onto their helicopter seeing them leave the the strange douche of a human called Nicholai. It was him who noticed in both cruel irony and shock a dangling thread of the parasite self of Nemesis. He knew then he had even lost to the BOW he was supposed to treat as a project. And, laughed some more at what the fates had in store as he waited to die.

“Even so. I do think we work best as friends. Right now. I mean. I am thinking of someone else.” Slevin looked at the lowered ceiling lights or rather procedure lights, which were also serving as ceiling lights. Something told Nemesis he knew who Slevin was talking about. He wanted to frown. But he liked Slevin and could see the appeal in him liking someone he _also_ liked.

“Do I know her?”

“You may, you said ‘her.’”

_Shit_. “I…it could be Naia.”

“You like her too? I know. You saw her pictures, she gave you her phone and you wanted to be good to her even in the classroom.” Slevin blushed, “I don’t know. She is pretty empathetic for a human and she is cute and intelligent.”

“Aware and kind. Self-conscious so a bit relatable and not arrogant.”

“She got really nice curves and limbs.”

“Her breasts are –“

“They can fit quite nicely in our Tyrant hands.”

They looked at each other, “Let’s just forget we –“

“Talked about her boobs? Agreed.” Nemesis nodded.

“Though 089 was right. She does seem to have what humans have termed as Double Ds.” Slevin almost blushed deeper than anything saying this. It was not his usual repertoire talking about female breasts. Fuck, I am beginning to sound like Draugen.

Nemesis attentions piqued, “Wait, Mr. Stoic likes her too, then?” he now was annoyed at this. Slevin he could tolerate. Hell, even Draugen making body comments to her in class as a brat. But 089 wasn’t a brat. He seemed so serious. And, he could tell. If he liked both Slevin and Naia, 089 would be serious about them. As he felt, and Slevin confirmed, 089 did not like others easily. And, 089 was highly intelligent, very charming and eloquent in little he saw him speak. And, he knew how to read, write and seemingly research like a professional. So, it was like he was the ant and 089 was the mountain somewhere. He did not like the feeling.

“Mr. Stoic? Nice nick.” Slevin giggled, “Uhm,” he thought, “Maybe yeah. But like 089 is a cool guy. And, we are friend, so if he likes Naia I will respect it. Though,” he looked determined, “I am definitely going to try to woo her.”

“Are we then the same?” Nemesis smirked.

“You bet. We should hope the best Tyrant amongst us wins.” Slevin says peacefully, “You know it is hard to figure it though considering this is something you cannot just merely fight for? As in, physically. I mean I know, I know. In the wild, animals also fight for potential mates but I noticed the ‘victor’ also depends on the female animal’s sense of choice and certain set preferences. Even with cats and dogs like. There needs to be wooing down and all of it. I guess for Tyrants like us. It’s a challenge.”

“Well,” Nemesis had to admit, Slevin made the most astute observations, which made him like him even more, if he wasn’t rival he would lick his face – okay, fuck it, “I been in Raccoon City so I know about challenges. The best part of some human beings is they don’t die easy…” Slevin looked at him, with a WTF question mark on his face, “Okay, weird analogy, but you get it?” Slevin took a moment and smiled and nodded, “We may be bioweapons but it is always the worthy who make us think more outside than instinct. And, if Naia does it, she is also worthy. Though, I felt it when she, asked to…” Nemesis softened, “Sit beside me and shared coffee with me. I know there is limited words for it in this language: ‘dehumanisation’ may seem to be our ‘normal’ as we are not human. I have heard some Tyrants revel in it too after all, why pretend yopu are something you are not? Though, the cruelty we commit, even without a human command, may imitate human cruelty without something we actually want. I felt Naia ‘humanised’ me, or well, ‘personalised’ me.” He seemed satisfied with his word selection, “I been a bioweapon even when I was out of commission. They bodied me because I showed some promise, my need to escape and survive had intrigued them. It was more fear than promise. I had no afterlife did I? If humans believe in heaven. Is there a heaven for us? And a hell? We commit crimes. Sins in the religious understandings of the world. I know a bit. So, if there is a heaven how can something that looks like me enter? I do not at all look like anything resembling markers of humanity and I do not look like their beliefs of angels. Rather, I look like a demon, don’t I? I mean my face looks worse than yours. So, it is harder, for humans, to imagine me anything as a monster. But Naia did not look at me like a monster. She looked at me as ‘me.’ She didn’t look for humanity or something akin to me. She was just judging ‘me’ on ‘me’, on my merits and the way I talked and behaved. Not merely a BOW. And…” he paused, his eye softened, “I think I will always be eternally grateful to her for that. If there is a God. Then God has my gratitude. I met Naia. Naia treated me well. Not as some experiment. But as another person. I mean sure some others tried but they were scientists who also had a vested interest in me. Naia had no reason to have an interest in me. Even if she had curiosities, I mean I had mine towards her, I was not in her classroom. She merely saw me outside. Heard about me from Jill and wanted to see if I was fierce or not. She must have been scared too. I can’t blame her. She had no reason to share her coffee but she did. She had no reason to give me her phone. But she did.”

\- And, now for the fuck it, he went ahead and licked Slevin’s cheek. Slevin stared at him, blushing deep, “You are fucking cute, okay.” Nemesis admitted, “Naia made me realise I don’t really need to hold back. I can

be who I am and there is no shame in it. I was ashamed. I was an older model. They even called me ‘tentacle porn’ around here. You can imagine.” Slevin looked upset by this, many humans had this insane capacity for cruelty which bothered him in the sense, why create them if they already possess such inimical cruelty? Or, was it an extension? He shuddered, fuck those types of humans anyway, “But, after I protected Naia. I realised. I am afraid of losing who I am even if I don’t always get what I am. And, I don’t wanna lose the bond I am sharing with Naia. Sometimes, a challenge is…” he looked at his own hand, made a fist and opened it up again, “You be yourself or try to just be you and be with someone you care about. It may seem stupid for a Tyrant to say it. But a Tyrant is more than a bioweapon. I refuse to believe we are only war playthings of human beings. Especially, now. Because I came this far. I survived that far more so than a human could ever have imagined.”

“God, you really are a mentor.”

Nemesis looked at a fawning Slevin. “You are so cool Nemesis. I knew you were gonna be awesome!” Nemesis had to smile, a younger gen Tyrant who looked powerful enough to rip NE-T Types like him was adoring him, not to mention, handsome, he should mention handsome again, shouldn’t he? “Hey,” Slevin rubbed his head, he found this habit of his so heart-warming, “Can we spar at times? I don’t usually get to have a go with a NE-T type properly before.”

Nemesis loved the idea, “But, what about Draugen? Have you never spared with him?”

“I hardly spar with him, a) It seems sometimes he holds back because he is worried he may do something wrong to piss me off and b) as you know he isn’t always good at losing and stuff so I wonder how I could manage him and I know he doesn’t lose often but still. He has taken on one or two Elite Tyrants before and let’s say even though he was bloodied so were they. He is good at fighting you know.” Slevin informed him, “I think under your mentorship he can really thrive Nemesis. He needs someone with your calculation, restraint and coordination. You know, you feel, I see you making all these minute decisions via your body language.” Good to know for Nemesis, “But Draugen, he loves overpowering, dominating, subduing via physical and tentacular force alone and as you said, not all fights require it. The challenge is to make wise decisions than being Mr. Overkill – and before you ask, some people call him that along with Molty Golden Boy. So, yeah.”

Nemesis looked contemplative, “Draugen actually hesitates with you, huh?” Recollects the time he used a Licker’s spine as a whip to bash in other Lickers.

“Well, yup. It’s no fun. I mean, I can take it. I am a Steel Tyrant. They don’t call us ‘Steel Boys’ for nothing, hehe.”

Nemesis looked at his lively expression, “Isn’t those the name of shotgun shells?”

“Yeah, but that company doesn’t make much ammunition anymore. They upgrade the model and it is now somewhat owned by homeowners and some security guards who told me. So, they call us ‘Steel Boys’ at times. The new ‘Steel Boys’ the upgraded ‘ammunition’ so to speak. But this is not done as a belittling or condescension. It really is a fun pet name.”

Nemesis nodded. It was quite cool when pet names were fun and not part of a humiliation tactic. Seeing Slevin made him happy too. When did he ever feel like this, towards another Tyrant? Yes, maybe with Naia and Jill. But not with well, not with any one of his own kind it seemed. Had he ever had a chance to talk to one? When he was dispatched he knew there were T-103 Tyrants in the area doing regular ‘maintenance’ work and to get a virus called Golgotha. His only mission was to get STARS. In retrospect, he may have helped those T-103s because the STARS people like Jill would have been an impediment for them getting G. Though, he needed to read up more on the G-virus and all the happenings at Raccoon City. A lot of things occurred, they weren’t all part of Jill and the UBCs and him tearing through the city. Things happened they were not really a part of so he needed to know. He had avoided it till now. Though he shouldn’t avoid it any longer than he can help it. Another thing bothering him: he genuinely wondered what happened to Carlos? Was he part of the BSAA? He wasn’t with Jill. Nemesis had figured, seeing them together, they may be a couple now. Even married. He was somewhat relieved they weren’t but…he also was somewhat sad. Jill and Carlos did deserve to be happy. They were worthy warriors to him.

“Well,” he began after a short enough silence between them where he had been revaluating his life plans, “Even if you do not want to accept 089 liking you. You have to admit. In some small sense, Draugen likes you. Maybe, you are his crush.”

“Oh c’mon, no!” Slevin laughed, “I am just the only one who tolerates him you know.”

“And, tolerance, in this case, not a sign of some affection, maybe bordering on those lines?” Nemesis questioned, “You say it yourself, most do. They do not tolerate Draugen. And, he does not tolerate anyone from what I saw. He may jeer and disregard the swearing of other NE-T models as well. But, he got affected by you ignoring him. Getting angry with him. So, he left even before class was finished.” Piecing together this made sense of him, “Now, you can’t find him, I couldn’t find him.” Giving him a sign, he also had looked, “He must be upset. Like really _upset_. Where does it come from? I think what he feels for you borderlines between what humans say friendship and romance. It’s interesting. I never would have figured him, such a coarse Tyrant, to even hold such a romantic charm. I think, you are the only one he showed some actual restraint to. I mean he ‘complimented’ Naia but belittled her too. He gives two fucks about me. Well, it’s interesting.” Then sighing, “Though I get if you are not into him. I mean. I probably shouldn’t have said too much.” Nemesis realised Draugen lived with Slevin and hoped in his need to analyse he had not created something uncomfortable for Draugen. He was feeling bad for the brat too. He would really need to clean his act if even Slevin lost his patience with him and decided not to well return his affections. Slevin to him functioned on Tyrant, what do humans call it, ‘saint’, yes, Tyrant saint levels of patience. It would take a calamity level of bio-hazard to weaken that. Nemesis knew the calamity levels of said bio-hazard could be Draugen.

“No, I never really thought of it Nemesis.” Slevin looked at him intently, “I mean compared to Draugen I think I am more different than me and 089. Draugen is very brash and direct in almost everything. He can be rude but I know he doesn’t always mean bad and he can be good. And, he is very sexual as you noticed. He goes through Tyrants and humans a lot as though they are a storm manifested to him as a challenge. I, on the other hand, have limited experience. Like super limited. Hell, I think 089 has more experience than me. I never thought I am Draugen’s type though.”

Nemesis thought instantly to Naia. She had differences than Jill. If he had never met her, he wouldn’t be able to completely imagine her. Maybe, it was the same for Draugen. Since he met and knew Slevin now he knew it would be hard to imagine him before. “Maybe, he hadn’t considered it before. But he was afraid of losing you.” Then he smirked, “I mean he hasn’t lost you already, has he?”

“Huh? Of course not.” Slevin looked apologetic, “I may have gotten mad with him and he was being a bitch but he is my friend.” Then he slumped down a bit, “I just hope he comes back sooner or later. Maybe we can go for a meal together.” He picks his fists in resolution, “We will be back as new.”

“Who knows maybe he can learn something from our sparring session.” Nemesis licked his own cheek with a flirty sort of appeal.

Slevin smirked, “Yeah and then he will bitch at us for not ripping into each other more.” They both laughed.

Nemesis held out an earbud, “Wanna hear some music together? Naia made the, what’s it called, playlist.”

“Hey, sure. That’s sweet! Thanks you the best Nems!”

Nemesis smiled. He liked the younger Tyrant’s enthusiasm and spark.

A song came into play called _Vignette_ by an artist called Shallou:

_I've been walled in for so long  
With just enough of the love I lost  
Watching from the sidelines  
Waiting for signs that it's alright_

_'Cause I will float through the night time  
And I get lost in the daylight  
But I can't follow to meet you  
You're far away but I'm  
Out on the other side_

_Images of you, whoa  
Images of you, whoa  
That I can't let go, oh_

_Are you with me?  
Are you with me?_

_I can feel your heart beating soft now  
Just telling me that I'll be fine  
When you're gone I will never know  
So tell me where the love goes_

_'Cause I will float through the night time  
And I get lost in the daylight  
But I can't follow to meet you  
You're far away but I'm  
Out on the other side_

_Images of you, whoa  
Images of you, whoa  
That I can't let go, oh_

_Images of you, ooh  
That I can't let go, oh_

Slevin and Nemesis listened to the song to the humming of ventilation systems and soft human voices at work in nearby labs.

* * *

“Uh, what?”

Naia looked at Gresham and she wanted to stand back a bit. She was taken aback. She had not expected him to say it so casually. “Could you –“

“I like what you are doing with Nemesis.” He drank coffee again and sipping looked at papers rather than her in his Tyrion labs office, “You pretty much have the same authorities I have over him now. Do what’s best. I mean I have my hands full with asshat Draugen, you know he could have lost a shit ton of money and research potential for his mistakes. The last thing this facility needs is negative press especially with those writers around too. So, I don’t always have time to help tentacle porn – I mean Nemesis…” he actually caught himself when he saw Naia cringe and bluish, Nian Zhen rolled his eyes and opened his flask to drink, “Yo, Noelle, you gotta do this now. I thought you were sober.” Nian Zhen shrugged and kept on drinking, “So, like, you can take him wherever you want and do whatever. You are ethical enough. Hell, make him stay in your room like I said. I think the labs is gonna make him mouldy as a used condom – bedsheet.” He caught himself again as Nian Zhen choked and Naia caressed his back and looked appalled as Gresham’s analogies, “Why don’t you take him to your room, tonight, see what he does? I don’t think tentacle-Nemesis has ever been in proper quarters before.” Then slyly grinning, “Not to my knowledge. Oh, for Fuck’s sake Nian Zhen if you gotta drink!” Gresham now looked mad, “Why not toss it in your office!”

“Hey fuck you, Rick.” Nian Zhen looked bad. Like really bad. Naia imagined he had not slept for over twenty-four hours and may have been drinking. She wanted to say something when the door opened and Byron in her lab coat and black skirt-suit stepped in with her erstwhile neighbour, whom she called that secretly as she hardly heard this girl or young woman Eveline. Eveline was wearing red fishnet tights with red tights and a black leather shirt and a red top and a black jacket with red fingerless leather gloves.

“Hey Alaric.” She waved and the black-haired beauty looked at Naia, “Oh, it’s you. I did knock at your room yesterday but I figured you pull another all-nighter and fell asleep.” _Wait, how does she know I pull all-nighters?_ Naia looked at her with some apprehension.

Before Byron could speak, a silvery flash passed through between all of them and Naia did not register what it was until she saw it connect with Eveline’s head and she yelled an “oww” and everyone looked at an enraged Nian Zhen. “Why haven’t they put you to pasture? You fucked up BOW!”

“Nian Zhen calm down.” Byron looked unimpressed, “We are not going through this again.” She looked at Gresham as if for him to intervene.

“Nian Zhen –“ Gresham started only for Naia to be casually pushed aside by said Nian Zhen who lunged at a screaming Eveline.

“Get off, you bastard!” Eveline screamed and slapped Nian Zhen twice and he wobbled his drunken state and Naia caught him as he struggled and was able to restrain him.

“Fucking useless ‘matriarch’ or whatever! You are the reason they are dead you know! You fucking –“ Nian Zhen vomited and Gresham had to call a medical unit. Before Naia could follow or ask questions, she saw Eveline starting to sob and Byron calming her down. Gresham came up to her.

“You know I can explain later Right now, do your job.” He was smiling yet sounded stern, “Why not spend some time with Nemesis?”

He went and talked to Eveline. Who hugged him immediately and cried into him. Gresham, for a whole two minutes, just stared at her. Only then, he lightly hugged her back and looked sheepishly at Byron who shrugged and was fixing documents.

_Sure, I guess you guys have your own levels of strange going on._

* * *

The secretary dropped her coffee.

“Oh shit, are you alright?” The Tyrant asked. 

“Wait, you are _the_ Nemesis, right?” Another secretary, his eyes wide, looked at him in awe, “Wow, I hardly get to see you as you are mostly in the labs.”

“Yeah, I am fine. None of it spilled on me.” She looked transfixed on him, even when she dabbed tissues, “Can I help you with something?”

“Yeah, uh.” Nemesis looked a bit embarrassed, he was wearing a black and grey casual outfit that seems to be a mash between robes and normal sweat pants, “Miss Naia Eve Nazari. I am supposed to know where her room is? She informed me she told you guys.”

“Oh, yeah.” The guy kept on smiling as he and the girl got out details and told him the room number.

“The elevator is right there.”

Nemesis gulped when he got in and was thankful he was all alone and it actually accommodated his bloody height. Hell, it could accommodate Elite Tyrants so it was built for the facility’s multipurpose intents. As he got out, he breathed. _Okay, don’t make a fool out of yourself. You can do this_. At one point, walking in the hallway _, I can’t fucking do this_ , and actually was turning around. Then he stopped. Sighed and slowly walked forward.

He gulped as he was going to not at her door – realising he usually had smashed doors open and hadn’t even given a shit about them – 

\- When it opened by itself and Naia came out smiling but he was shocked and he roared and fell down on his ass.

“Oh, are you okay?!” Naia looked worried.

_Fuck. My. Life_. Nemesis smiled sheepishly, “Yeah, hi Naia. Class yesterday was nice.” She offered her hand and he took it, seeing his giant like paws made for crushing faces lightly touch her smaller one, He got up by himself. “Thanks for inviting me.” Naia had informed him on the new arrangements. Fuck, he was elated as this was nirvana compared to being called tentacle porn.

He got himself and realised this is the first time he was being in the threshold of someone’s home via invitation. Last time, he pretty much burst through Jill’s wall, kicked her to the curb like some street trash, and then wrecked her place as though it was some personal torture chamber. _Yeah, I am not gonna break anything_. He looked at the nice decorations and decided to move carefully into the room. He looked at Naia’s bed. It was a king sized one. Most of the employees who did research based got queen- or king-sized beds. Techs and interns usually got their own double beds and flat units, which were very nicely done as well and helped as most technicians who worked together had similar routines so could share an additional work space in their flat units labelled as alphabet blocks. He knew this as Hayden and Lewis lived together, whereas Hayden’s girlfriend, Anita, a greenhouse scientist, had similar apartment arrangements as Naia. Lewis nagged Nemesis the other day on how Hayden was sleeping in fancy Anita’s bed though he had their flat to himself.

_The bed is impressive. It looks sturdy enough to hold the weight of Tyrants. Is this normal protocol? Wait – why am I thinking of this?_ Nemesis got flustered and decided to look at the small kitchen and small, wooden dining table, varnished where Naia had was putting tea bags in and had nice pot-like mugs out. “Here Nemesis. Have some green tea. I know you like espresso. But, it is gonna be like 8pm and I think you shouldn’t drink too much caffeine.” Then laughingly as she moved fingers through her hair; Nemesis watched her do it so he did not reach out for the tea mug until the last moment, “I mean. I am gonna follow my own rule tonight.” She was trying to sleep earlier. Eveline’s comment also had her a bit rattled. She wondered how the young woman knew of her nightly research. She was sure there were no cameras – and even if Gresham seemed controlling this breach of privacy did not seem much to his tastes. “You know Gresham said I could invite you over and I did.” Nemesis looked down a bit. Was it merely a job? “Oh, I wanted to ask you around too. We are kinda friends, aren’t we?” She smiled, as she could see him crestfallen.

Nemesis smiled, “Of course we are friends, Naia.” She invited him…to sit with her at the end of the bed. Nemesis down a big ‘chunk’ of tea then cursed himself as it burned his mouth. _Fuck, I am a BOW who can handle rocket launchers and what? I am defeated by fucking tea!_ He fanned his tongue slightly and followed Naia.

“So, like do you wanna watch Netflix? It’s a streaming service.” She pointed to the nice sized smart TV on the ceiling, on top of her desk space. Its primary function seemed to be for presentation overviews and data sets modulations but it could be attached for entertainment. Nemesis nodded.

She brought them some snacks. Nemesis had not eaten solid foods in a while. He did not feel like admitting this to Naia. He almost chocked on a chip and flushed at it but Naia held his arm supportively. He ate slow. Liked the crunch of the chips on his teeth. They were watching a Studio Ghibli movie, _Howl’s Moving Castle._ Naia explained some of the points and how it was based on a novel of the same name.

“So, Sophie has mutated into old Sophie; hmmm, seems to be a non-beneficial form.” Nemesis crunched the chips, “That haggard witch seems to know what the hell she is doing then.” Then sipped some tea, “Sorry, not mutation. Transformation. Is Sophie battle-ready in this form? Can’t be.”

Naia found it amusing but also interesting. Her determination intrigued Nemesis as much as it intrigued Naia. When Sophie comments how old age has lessened some of her meekness and restrictions, Nemesis felt he actually could relate. “The scarecrow brought the castle? Wonder if they are someone useful?” Nemesis smirked at Naia.

“I am not spoiling anything Nemesis.” Naia blew raspberries at him, making him chuckle.

At one point, Naia excused herself to go the washroom. The movie was almost ending and they both were watching in rapt attention. Nemesis was fascinated with Howl and his many personas, his need for being beautiful and also his darker side. Ironically, even if Howl was a fictional human, he could understand and connect with him.

She came back and saw Nemesis had fallen asleep. He had been training the whole day. Draugen had been a no-show. Yet, he persisted in doing drills and moving around heavy machinery getting attuned to new weaponry. Nian Zhen had messaged her and stated Nemesis really knew how to work drills and a combat scene. Then apparently, he had proceeded hearing the assignments Naia had assigned. Usually, Nemesis could push further but it had been a while. And, the comfort of Naia and Naia’s room had an effect on him.

Naia smiled. Paused the movie. Put a blanket on him, he had sat down on the carpet on her floor as if he felt drowsy and did not wish to snooze on her bed without her permission. Also, it was the first time he came over so he also felt it would be awkward to her.

She put a pillow near his head. Changed in pyjama shorts and graphic tee and switched off the lights. Carefully, she got into the bed, so her moving did not awake Nemesis. Under the moonlight, a human and Tyrant slept in companionable comfort.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Nemesis and Naia slept in the same room? Oooooo watch happens next? Will X give it to Leon? Will Draugen ever come into training? Will the Elite Tyrants get names I promised but I did not include in this chapter? Sorry technical errors in our programmed schedule! What will happen next! Stay Tuned and get your blankies and tea for the next chapter!
> 
> Also, yeah "Vignette" by Shallou is kinda the love theme for this fic. You can listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wheZ0p65Gbo
> 
> I thought the words and ways of messaging was perfect for Tyrants x Humans in general. A sense of questioning of identity and also what one is. I thought it fit the fic perffectly.


	10. The Act of Doing (i)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was a mammoth of a chapter. It's 16K LONG has a lot of stuff in it and I think some of it will please you peeps!
> 
> Quick Chapter word summary for those who may need it:
> 
> 1st: Nemesis+ Jill. 8678 words  
> 2nd: Draugen+Slevin+Kontane. 6579 words  
> 3rd: Miscellaneous. 813 words

**The Act of Doing (i)**

Nemesis dodged the machine throwing bullets at him with some difficulty. A twist there and a move there allowed him more stability as he roared and went forth. Nemesis took out his tentacles and slapped the bullets aside; his body was still weak compared to other NE-a T types but he was not going to lose. His tentacles felt the damage partly but they were mere scratches to his anatomy. The riveting machine gun was throwing out bullet, shards of electricity, glass bomb pellets and alternating with one powerful electric burst charge, which seemed to be a tactical ‘weakness’ to the gun though a hit faced by the last ‘ultimate’ attack could leave a Tyrant groggy and susceptible to other assaults.

Nemesis took one right in the chest as he had dodged late. Saliva and blood came out of his mouth. He roared as he felt a glass bomb shatter near his eye making him fell. He was out for a moment, trembling in pain. Before anyone could cancel the drill, he bolted up and did a roll and dash, it was like he learned it from Jim always evading his more wide-stance attacks. Of course, like him and Jill, he could exert his body to do a spin and spread fist move and remembered Jill losing blood when it had connected to her face once or twice. He shuddered. Back then, he had been pleased. Now, in a similar position, he realised it is not always good to gloat over a superficial form of superiority. Especially, when it can bite you in the back. Karmic bitch. Nemesis kept on dashing, rolling, dodging and rolling and roared as he used a beam to grapple around his tentacle and he used his feet to dive in first and half-obliterate the machine. It sparked, metals, rods and ammunition bursting, he pulled it to a side, to shield the stray bullets and other arsenals of it shooting now as he had mostly put it out of commission. He ducked as an explosion hit and moved and stumbled when another hit and he rand – he was not in the mood for mutations and damage assessments kept in check were part of a Tyrant’s job.

He dashed fast, feeling like Jill moving away from myriads of destructive forces and jumped and used another beam for his tentacle to move him to a higher point on his ride still using his coat to shield some excited debris. He breathed in and out, feeling tired but keeping pace well and clasped his huge hands to wipe off any machinery oils and others detritus. There was a clapping sound. A standing ovation? Nemesis saw Foe cheering him on, Nergel clapping and nodding to him in respect, Nian Zhen winking at him and a whole host of humans, to security guards and scientists and technicians cheering him on. Among them, he saw Hayden and Lewis. He rubbed the back of his neck. Not used to this particular kind of attention. So, he just waved his arm. Immediately, a few of the security guards and other humans began to cheer. “Wow, you rock Nemesis!”, “Yeah, man nicely done!”, “Who says he is an older mode?! He fucked up the Volt Turret!”, “Draugen still sucks at time taking that out! Too busy killing other stuff!”, “His time is more than decent too!”, “You can see him as a Raccoon City veteran!”.

Suddenly, he saw _Jill_ clapping too. Nemesis blinked. Jill waved her arm at him. He waved back at her. Catching his breath from the running. He saw Jill was wearing leather pants again, light brown belted boots and a red and blue turtle vest like top. Her hair was down too. Nemesis loved her brunette long hair almost up to her waist. He had to admit, long hair looked good on hair. Naia’s hair, small yet long fluffy tendrils came into view with its rich assortments of reddish-browns, blues and purples. He had to admit Jill’s hair was elegant. Naia’s was something else to him.

Home?

Why did the word pounce on him? Well, he loved Naia’s hair. It reminded him of clear dawn and dusk. Jill’s reminded him of tight rope, taut and secure, dazzling like his own tentacle. Yet the threads fine and attentive. Jill may have changed a bit. For worse and better. The Jill he met had been younger so shorter hair seemed like no-nonsense and the part of the times. He recalled someone stating if women were too fashion oriented in those civil service posts they would not be taken seriously. Such a thing seemed stupid to him, especially because like most Tyrants he was bald. Hair already seemingly dead was not required for their impregnable bodies. Well, he had hair-like thread tentacles so there was a feasible substitution. Hmmm, is this something humans could even call attractive? Maybe I can say it in Naia’s class? I don’t think anyone aside Draugen would laugh. Everyone conducts themselves quite well. Nemesis had heard despite Draugen’s reluctance he had to attend class. Nemesis had snorted when Nian Zhen informed him, drinking from a flask. Nian Zhen looked more beaten than usual begging the Tyrant’s inquisitive glance at his dishevelled and subtly irritated form. He shivered as if he was cold. It was not the best of signs and Nemesis wanted to exchange some words. Though was it his place? To speak so candidly with Nian Zhen?

Albeit, he did have enough talking for a while. His vocal chords hurt like a motherfucker after chatting up a storm with Slevin the other day (remembering their promise of a spar). He was still not the best at talking. There were periods he could talk a lot and other times he would get quiet. Well, Nian Zhen had told him it was a good sign, his vocal chords, as scans estimated were growing, expanding to the trills and growls of his predatory like body. After talking to Slevin and Naia the other day, he had woken up with a cough and almost spitting out mucous in the morning, which he hastily gulped as the last thing he wanted was to destroy Naia’s nice, plush Persian carpeting –

What the fuck? Oh, yeah. Surveying his surroundings, he saw the beautiful king-sized bed, mahogany finish with its tall two beams, and slab of the head desk carved; in the arrangement of a four poster French Antique Style. Unknown to Nemesis, most of the bedrooms in this floor were lavish, scientists were given ‘incentives’ as such to discourage leaving much and to work to their fullest. The techs and security guards got similar treatment only with less design details as they did hands on work and may be needed out of their posts sooner than scientists. Human arrangements were a tad bit better than Tyrant accommodations. Nemesis had woken up to warmth, lukewarm milk and the freshness of espresso. He saw the lovely Egyptian cotton, forest radiant green, on him and the pillow. He had fallen asleep in Naia’s room! He had almost forgotten himself! He was worried. Was she pissed at him for such an intrusion – then he smelled the coffee and saw the note next to him on the carpet floor. He picked it up.

_Nems,_

_I am sorry I had to leave early. I had to go to the library to see some books I may need. Also, I had to meet Leon_ (he snorted) _he called me and I haven’t met him in a while. Apparently, he will be talking to Gresham properly today. He has been wanting to meet him since we arrived here. I decided to leave you a key. I mean just in case you need to lock the door and I don’t come back. I made some coffee for you — espresso. Your favourite in a way. Also, there is some cereal out. I heard you coughing the morning. So, I heated the milk and put it in a cannister so it stays warm. Please help yourself_ (she already did everything). _I will see you in class today? As usual, I don’t know your schedule. And, if you do drills again I know those can happen for a long time. I am very happy you are coming over to the class! I am excited today as opposed to the first day! Please remember, if something sucks just tell me._

_Have a great morning Nemesis,_

_With lots of hugs,_

_Naia._

He touched the paper and blanket. “Naia.” He mouthed her name. Before he knew it, he kissed the paper. Licked it possessively. Taking in her pheromonal signature with a growl. Feeling his member twitch as he closed his eye. Growling deeper in his rough voice. Nibbling on the paper as if it were her skin. So, fucking perfect… he thought of Naia and felt she was a _masterpiece._ Her sweet flesh, lovely curves and her nice messy, wavy hair and her doe eyes and pink-mauve lips, honey terracotta skin, slender fingers, networked veins of blues, pinks and purples, and ample breasts and delicate fat all culminated in a sweet masterpiece of human beauty in flesh. He didn’t have to interact with her more to know. He had for only a few days yet her closeness and kindness were making him go fucking _wild_. _Feral_ with the need to pick her up and push his tongue into her soft mouth and shred her clothes and wrap her in his flesh and tentacles. Of course, with her permission. He wanted her enamoured. Not scared. Never scared. He did not wish for her to fear him. Not in this manner. There was a need in him. It happened with Jill. Yet…had it happened this intensely? With Jill, he had imagined, with Naia, he had experienced.

He smelled the sweet blanket and felt Naia’s scent in it. Growled and put an end into his mouth. Like some wayward predator at play, he sucked and drooled on the blanket. And, rubbed it on his body. “Naia.” Mouthing her name, rough little roar, as if he was in a trance. His teeth sank into the blanket softly.

Nemesis decided to come back to the present. He did not to think of the morning again. Least he had a hard-on in front of all these people. Well, what worried him is they would cheer and take photos of his thing as though it was an exhibit or something. A tug down there made him realise Jill was here too. He flushed and looked away. Yes, he was still attracted to her. She was STARS after all. He sighed. Was it a DNA shitty deal? He chuckled to himself. Maybe to crush the skull under his foot. Jill with her defiant looks and haughty mouth was something he wouldn’t mind licking. Though, for now, his heart really did –

In a way, belong to Naia.

It felt strange. He had never belonged anywhere or truly to anyone. He was ‘merchandise.’ Even the asshat Nicholai pointed it out as such; demanding Jill to fight _the_ Nemesis not a ‘him’ but a ‘the.’ He had accepted it as a prototype BOW. And, even with his wonders with Jill fantasies, he did not know if they belonged or really yearned it as much. He savoured their rivalry, their needs and tempos, chemistry and desires being fulfilled in the flesh of erotic awakenings. With Naia, the equation was more intense and so different. It was like he was –

Her fucking Tyrant. And, he wanted to jerk off to it. The ownership without owning. The dominance without violence. The tug of a possessive string without any form of brutality. Her eyes and smiles had put chains on him and he liked them. It was to be possessed without being a possession. There was a freedom in it. He never thought freedom could happen in a four-walled space with such a ferocity and smell of sweetness. He never knew he wanted to get on top of freedom, fuck her till she couldn’t cum anymore, with her howling his name. Tears of pleasure encased in vulnerable, pithy, human flesh. He shivered at it. He was a bundle of emotions. Too many sensations. Training tempered it. Nor else, he would be climaxing roaring and tearing off his clothes, a constraint to his primal heat.

Would Naia want to, taste his tongue? His tentacles? He growled a bit and came down to people still cheering. He looked at Jill who smirked. He smirked back. Looked at a flamethrower. Picked it up. Started, to everyone’s surprise, burning the shit out the Volt Turret gun’s remnants. Fucking Leon… he knew, she went to meet him, did she have to? What if they are already dating? Clenching his fists on the flamethrower’s bluish-red flames feeling he himself could burn the place down with his needy touch for the girl, woman called Naia. Even his desire for Jill did not ‘mutate’ as such. One mutation he craved. The metals melted, static splurged out and he pushed aside as stray debris of bombs and bullet ricocheted out. He jumped on the walls and angled his flamethrower, using the asymmetrical beams to position his tentacles and fire a flame burst at the thing effectively turning it to ashy metals. The feeling more ecstatic than merely completely a task. The positions he could have with darling Naia…he shuddered as a stiffness pawed him between his legs. Not now. He came down. Ability to control his need. He had already came in the morning. He would indulge later.

He blushed. I am glad I cleaned up. _What a loser I am. I came in Naia’s room. Just because…Just because her pheromones drove me wild and her sweet unique scent and just HER._ Nemesis grumbled a bit and a soft growl. It was just Naia was becoming incredibly special to him. She had help him awaken again. If he ever wanted a human being like this, Jill could rival a bit his longing. Not fully. However, he sighed as he put down the flamethrower with the other models. Neatly, in stacked order. He could throw it out like Draugen, let the techs handle it, yet, he didn’t want those techs to be Hayden and Lewis. Besides, he liked organising his weapons catalogue. He had before as did now. There was. A pride in his muscles and Tyrant self to hold deftly and stroke and manoeuvre these heavy and intricate machineries. The NE-T types were always prized for such and well, most other Tyrants used muscle bulk and seldom used weapons. The culture was changing, he heard from Nian Zhen. Still, NE-T types as himself, were the most primary weapon wielders. He thrived in this classification.

“Wow, Nemesis.” Nian Zhen hiccupped but covered his mouth as he came forward with Jill, “Never get into your bad side.”  
  


Nian Zhen, however, looked mad when a girl with black hair and bluish-grey eyes came into their surroundings, “Hey, Nemesis you did great. Nice to meet you.” She waved, “I am Eveline.” She was wearing red tights and fishnet stockings, a nice electric blue tube-like top, almost like the one Jill had worn back in Raccoon city and a red skirt with blue and black lines flaring out on it. Funny, did she also smell…a bit like…no…but Alaric Gresham…?

“Fuck you BOW. 003 jump off a cliff.” Nian Zhen snapped at her, baring teeth.

“Why is it you are always mean to me?! I am here as everyone else — ah!” Eveline got out of the way as Nian Zhen went to grab her hair, “You suck Xia Nian Zhen! I am complaining to Alaric!”

Nemesis looked at her go. _She is a BOW? But she looks a lot like a human._

Nian Zhen looked bad at him, “As I said, not gonna get on your bad side.”

Nemesis just gruntled with contentment. Until, he saw Jill eyeing him, suspect — _wait, does she know? Nah, she can’t know what happened in Naia’s room_ — “So,” Nemesis subtly gulped as she started, “What’s up with you?”

Nemesis stared, “Excuse me?”

“Wow, you are really polite too.” Nemesis rolled his eyes as she stated this, Nian Zhen went to talk to some techs burping and drinking from the flask, seeing his annoyance, Jill picked up her hands to calm him, “Okay, Okay, that was condescending.” Nemesis snorted, “C’mon hear me out big guy.” He liked being called that and he nodded but maintained some suspicion to her earlier comment, inside he was sweating bullets though, what could she mean with her cold, calculative, non-hostile stare, a caution, he seen it before as she had traversed after encountering his second form, quadrupedal and intoxicated with rage and desire to maim and bite her to shreds, never had he known, he would be back into his more ‘suitable’ and favoured bipedal form, be crossed arm and talking to her rather than them both attacking each other’s throats with the vide grip of survival, “Why are you mad?”

“Huh?”

“Don’t fuck with me big guy…”

“Maybe I should just _fuck_ you…and get it out of….” Nemesis paused, as wide eyes started at him, jaw almost dropping, “…the way.”

“The fuck you say, _stalker_.” She almost gritted her teeth in the whisper.

“Nothing.” He looked elsewhere for a while then went back to look at her, fierce, “ _STARS_.”

Jill smirked, though she looked at his face, with more softer eyes, for a minute, just a minute, she licked her bottom lip, as though she was thinking something, “Hey.” Jill looked out as if not looking at him at all, “Let’s leave. Come with me.”

“What…hey, Jill…?”

Nemesis followed as his hand was being tugged by one Jill Valentine. “Hey Nian Zhen.” Nian looked at up and Jill and burped. Both Nemesis and Jill looked at him.

“Yeah, what is it Jil?”

“Can you give Nemesis clearance, to go anywhere with me?”

“Yeah sure.” Nian Zhen looked at them, a certain glaze in his eyes, clouded with some knowledge, he got a tech’s Stone and just signed an bio-reading authorisation app and pressed Nemesis finger on it too, right thumb to be exact, “See ya, Nemesis. Come back later tonight or tomorrow. We could use you to see how to destroy two or more Volt Turrets and Foe here wanted to show you her blade combat skills.” Nemesis looked up to see Foe wave at him.

He was going to wave at her and slightly did while being pulled by Jill. Nemesis was worried. What had he done? He was worried to ask as Jill had this determination fire in her eye and he did not know what it meant. Why was she licking her lip? What was happening? His tentacles trembled as he felt a pheromone radiation from Jill. _No, I can’t be right. Her? Right now? What?_

However, they did get up on the elevator. It was towards the residential block as he went to see Naia the other night. Nemesis was too confused to do anything but let out an exasperated gruff to which Jill eyed with a lead stare making him actually uncomfortable. Yet, he looked back and shrugged. What could she expect from him? What did she want? What was it?

They walked along an empty hall. It seemed most of the residents of the floor were at work and it did not look as crowded either. The floor was grander than Naia’s floor and on an upper level. Nemesis could go back but it felt useless to do so as he was curious and also Jill seemed adamant about an issue. An adamant face, he had encountered in Raccoon City. He was not letting this familiarity, even if it was present nostalgia, slither away from his tentacles easily. She could not possibly want to spar? To battle out things? What was the point to fight up here then? Or, fight at all? He did not personally know.

She used her key. It seemed to be shaped, like Naia’s, as an old key but the door read it like a magnetic strip. The base metals were for convenience and aesthetics as Lewis complained to Nemesis once that people could lose card keys at times easily so they could order old fashioned keys functioning with new technology. Nemesis realised as he entered. He was in Jill’s room. The bed was magnificent, if not more, polished mahogany with dark and cream tones, more pillows, silken yogurt cream sheets and blanket, a chaise lounge near the bed and a larger kitchen and dining table, with a separate room, he could see as a more focused office and book cases. This was like a suite. Nemesis scratched his head.

“Jill, why have you —”

She punched him. She had closed the door and punched him. “Hey!” he roared as he clutched his cheek. She got a stronger fist now and it had hit well. She possibly knew how to punch Tyrants better now seeing her career had become designed to handle BOWs and close to close combat was now even taught to Blue Umbrella security.

He evaded her next punch. As fast, become faster than he was in the training room, he rolled and got close to her, “That’s my move Fuck Face!”

“And that is Carlos’s line deadbeat STARS!” Nemesis growled pushing her and she grunted and hit the chaise lounge but bolted right at him, jumped a bit and gave a kick at a more vulnerable spot near his abdomen and chest, just making him go off balance a bit before she stubbed his feet in another sensitive area, making him growl and punch out and she got a bit of it and went “Ahhhh!” and still wiped her face and got up and grabbed his neck and hit his meshed up ear making him try to spin her off. She almost bit his nose. And, he light slapped her, which was still hard by all accounts considering he was a fucking Tyrant. Jill grabbed onto his tentacle — swiftly as he was about to fall off — wrapped her legs around him in a way which made him crash down on the floor and she kicked his face twice. Making him growl and groan.

“It’s all you got STARS!” he yelled and grabbed her foot and spun her entire body once and thumped her on her bed. She spun her legs and got up.

“Not by a lot shot Bitch! SWIM ON THIS!” Nemesis was shocked by the comment until he felt her heel in his eye and roared out as though he caught the light from a flash bang.  
  
He actually moved around for a moment as if he WAS caught in a flash bang, “That makes no sense! There is no water here!” Nemesis could feel her presence and he started running around thre room.

“Fucking Zoomies! STILL! REALLY!”

Jill could partly evade as Nemesis broke out of the circle run and hit Jill in the shoulder, not hard enough to draw blood but good enough for her to skid aaway and clutch her arm in pain and scream at him again and grab his neck and scratch his face and he grabbed her by the shoulder he hit and pushed her down the floor, “Rest up, Jill.”

“On your grave, mother fucker.”

“Try to swim in that too?”  
  
“Bloody bitch!” Jill attacked his mocking hanging mouth with a punch to his teeth, which were a bit more sensitive if hit appropriately near the upper gums, making him spasm and keel back as though she had shot him at his head and/or in blank range, like the time they were fighting each other in Raccoon City, with his fucking excuse of an outfit, shedding tape; it annoyed him then and it annoyed him now. It also annoyed him then because he was out and about for the first time and the newly exposed flesh, in the heat and the cool of a burning city, annoyed him massively. Afterwards, while pacing around, attempting to corner and track Jill, he had realised how his ‘clothes’ were makeshift and it bothered him due to their lack of versatility and durability. In his second form, all he had clung to him from his taped trench coat was a ratty cut-out, crudely shaped like some loincloth over his dick. It made him realised the scientists, knowing he was unstable, stapled together some shitty for him to wear and it was like he was ossified in black tape.

It pissed him off even more. Jill and others had the decency to be dressed right while he was strapped in someone’s attempts in rudimentary office stationary.

He snarled as he slabbed at Jill’s thigh making her hit the bed’s four poster beam on the mouth. Not hard. But enough to bleed as she spat out some blood and spit the leftover onto his face making him roar and punch the bed. He had been right. It seemed they were made of some unidentifiable shit nor else how could they withstand his blow. What was this? He didn’t care now much as he swung again and Jill dropped down and BIT his nearing tentacle. Screeching as she did, she spit out the mucous lathering his tentacle and he wiped her blood his face and saw he bled little from her canines. He smirked. Tasting this wound made him feel alive. After all, they were too pent up it seemed. They had met. Still, they had no axis of framework aside battle.

No Naia as translator and mediator. They had to learn. From the roots of what they knew, to the tips to which they did not.

Nemesis roared. He had been roaring for so long. The walls were thick enough to cloud sounds. He suspected their motives as he was used to scan areas. However, he also knew. No one must be on this floor at the moment. Nor else, all their moving around, at this hour, someone may question. Unless, it was the convention in these residential sectors to keep a mind off unless something offlandish continues in a way where ambiguity does not help lead the prying senses away. Jill readied her stance as grabbed her faced as before and slammed her down — only, new trick. She twisted her legs around his arm when he was pulling up and before he could react she hung from his arm, changed angles in a quick, fluid, practised movement and kicked him in his neck and turned to kick him, with her other foot on his nose as she fell down. He shook his head and attempted to lightly kick her shin. It was funny, they were both holding back a bit. Even she calculated force of her strikes even if she was less restrained. ]

She evaded his foot and kicked it with no effect, only to go down by him backhanding her with a swift twitch of his arm. She grabbed his arm as she was almost knocked off breath with not blood and bit in his knuckles in a hazy face, filled with pain and anger and he slammed her now on the carpeted floor. Pressing her face harder, she was breathless for a minute, before in Raccoon city she would look devastated for some moments as his powerful palm collided and pressed. Yet, she was no novice no more. As she spat at his arm, and him distracted by the saliva on his hand, dropping on a tentacle, did not see said tentacle being pulled forward making him crash on the bed. He turned to be on his back, prepping to get back up when she straddled him and started punching his chest and face. It hurt a bit as she made sure her punches made some impact. Though, he was Nemesis. A tyrant. He was built to sustain rocket launchers. He grabbed her wrist and she snaked out one hand and slapped him twice. This made him roar again and quickly move up and pin her down on her bed as she slapped him twice again.

“That for the people!” she slapped again, as he attempted to restrain her struggling body, “And Tyrell! And Carlos! And Me!”

He finally got her pinned. His eye. Looking at her eye. Both breathing. Him salivating a bit. This had been a more entertaining workout.

“Tell me, bitch, can you swim?”

Nemesis raised a brow, “Not…really…” okay, maybe he needed to learn how to now?

Jill laughed in his face, “You ass.”

“Says the asshat.” Nemesis laughed with her.

They both breathed in and out.

Jill looked at him again.

Then she kissed his nose. Long, no longer crocked, nose.

Nemesis gasped and gulped, “Jill?”

She responded by pulling at his limiter turtle neck collar, on a belt, leaving a scratch.

“Fuck, Jill, this is expensive!”

“Better than body bag?” she mocked.

“You Fuck.” He growled, and pulled at her top, without thinking. It ripped off.

“What. The…hey, I liked this top…”

“I am…I am sorry.”

“Finish it.” She commanded.

Nemesis wanted to say ‘excuse me’ again. He was stopped by Jill putting his hand on the tear. Smiling with seductive eyes. _Oh, Fuck…So, uhm, God?_

He ripped it easily. In his excitement, her bra could not protect itself. Not that it would want to anyway. It came off. Tattered. He wanted to apologise but Jill biting her lips with a naughty smile made him go, _Fuck that shit_ , and put his tongue right into her mouth and she stiffened only for a bit as she moaned as his tentacles, slippery with arousal, lathered her breasts and pinched her nipples. The sweet little pink pebbles were pinched and coddled making Jill moan harder in Nemesis’s maw which was dumping a year’s worth of saliva in her mouth.

It dripped down on the sides of her mouth and she wondered what he was thinking. She was what she was thinking. Maybe, this was long overdue anyways. She should have known this is what had amassed within them. A chemistry they could not necessarily deny. She felt Nemesis not holding back and walking away saying she was stark mad was a sign he had also thought of this. Was this healthy? Maybe not. After all, they hadn’t talked and they just were beating the shit out of each other. Jill did not know what had come over her. She saw Nemesis doing well in training but she also saw him mulling on something. A sense in her just snapped. She knew he could still be pushed further. He had stamina to do so as she had noticed first-hand what he was capable of. Additionally, she was pissed even if she was clapping for him. For a moment, she felt something _private_ of hers was taken away. Like, everyone else was experiencing what she had experienced even if it was not first-hand knowledge. She did not know she would feel this possessive about Nemesis. It disturbed her a bit. Should she be feeling like this? What would Nemesis think and feel if he knew? Would he be flattered? A feeling inside told her, even as flattering as it was, it may not be the _right_ way to approach this. It had less to do about classic morality and more to do with parameters of permission. Possessiveness was handy but it could not always be healthy. Also, she was still angry with him for killing the Raccoon city survivors and Tyrell. _Like, he could have killed Nicholai and unintentionally done us all a favour?_ Jill internally snorted. Then wondered why he had not as Nicholai had been studying ALL of them as his own personalised rats in a maze.

Was her anger now transferring to lust? Partly. It may mean more. She knew she had wanted this for a while. At first, she was very disturbed, the time it would be considered taboo to like Tyrants. And, Nemesis was a looker in some respects compared to the classic T-103 models. She remembered confessing this to Chris and after a pause he did change conversations. Making her super self-conscious. Was she betraying her codes by doing this and wanting something, which could have been ‘outre’? It had been Carlos who had told her it was okay. That was just basic human emotions wanting control and agency on something bad happening to them. Also, Nemesis in the end seemed to make hunting Jill a tad bit personal. “Well, that’s why, I said, in a way, don’t you like that in a man.” Carlos had laughed. It was true, she didn’t. She liked a guy who could take “no” with good humour, which Carlos seemed to be able to do when he said he understood personal space. It was Nemesis is someone she knew from a time she felt alone and abandoned. Being close to her mid-twenties and feeling abandoned by her team, even Chris and feeling she had failed Brad and the whole RPD was against them because they had somehow implicated their benefactors, the Umbrella corporation. Wesker, their cold captain, whom she had respected as much as Marvin and the others, turned out to be psychopathic and hating on humanity with this obsession that seemed to rival any T-virus infection.

Later on, she had been mad at Chris for ignoring her when she confessed her complicated feelings. Telling him he was being a form of ‘purist’ and he was certainly being an asshole on it. Any chance of them having a future romance was thwarted. Chris had made it clear his feelings, reached out at a time, how much he wanted to be with her. Yet, his inability to accept she may not totally be scared of Nemesis, had understood the ‘creature’ and may have lowkey known they had a weird of a history and chemistry, made it impossible. She did not know why. She felt it was a form of immaturity on Chris’s part and deeper than it, she felt Chris was someone who repressed and was out of touch with his own feelings. She was no more satiated by this and she was heartbroken. She had known Chris for ages and she had been smitten with him. To know now, they had no possible future pained her. Perhaps, what had happened in Arklay had been both a curse and a blessing? After all, when Chris left to pursue Wesker in a way, she had not been completely happy. She did not like him leaving all of a sudden and though he had given them the responsibility to talk to RPD she felt a bit bitter on it. Jill faced adequate sexism at work from higher ups. Some had even called her hysterical, Brad a coward who should NOT be in Team Alpha, they excused Rebecca as she was young and apologised to her stating she should not have maybe come with the STARS unit for her average than younger age, making Rebecca even more furious and then Barry was also discharged and told to take care of his mental health.

In retrospect, she felt Chris had taken the ‘easier’ road of pursuit as bureaucracy was none of their strong points. In a fight, she accused Chris of this stating he had the done the relatively easier job, which utilised skills they had and were trained for. And, she was bitter. She had counted on him and he, in a way, had let her down. Even the fact Wesker was missing and could be involved with something was more than worrisome. Yet, Chris obviously had a personal vendetta against him too. The captain of STARS was a criminal. And, Jill was planning to secretly, as much as she could covertly do it, leave the city. Her plan was to figure out what Umbrella had been doing with Chris. Then Carlos came into the picture who was UBCS. She had to contend with the truth, not all of Umbrella was a cesspool. Chris had been so hyper focused he in a way forgot about her. By the time, they had met up again, with the formation with the BSAA, they had changed, she felt he had in a way disappointed her a lot by focusing too much on Wesker and keeping away from her. Still, she had tried, they had history and she wanted to be with someone who knew her before Arklay. She should have known this was impossible. Inadvertently, she had ended up hurting Carlos, who had gotten married in 2008. She saw him wed his new wife, Beatrice. The reception afterwards had been awkward. With her and Carlos, looking at each other. What had they lost, delaying what could have been?

All of it, had culminated to this moment, Nemesis was not **hiding** anything, even if he was insecure, as she had seen in the first meeting. Also, they both seemed to like Naia too and they both were not **denying** things anymore. If they felt an attraction and found it feasible for now they are going for it. Nemesis’s tentacles played with his nipples, pulling slowly and experimentally. “Oh.” She sighed, and he stopped immediately, “No, big guy, you can keep going.” Then paused for a moment, “Hey Nemesis…” he looked at her, his one eye looking quite nervous but also tender, “Have you…uh…” she looked at his shaft slightly erect through his clothes, “Done this before?”

Nemesis went kind of quiet. _Wait, is he, a virgin?!_ Jill was screeching to a halt inside, “Once.” Nemesis softly answered.

“Only once?” Nemesis nodded to Jill now caressing his cheek.

“It was with two scientists who wanted to have the Nemesis.” He said it with a frown, “It wasn’t bad. They asked and I was interested. It wasn’t super great but it was decent enough.”

Jill kissed his cheek, “Don’t worry. We got each other on this.”

Nemesis appreciated that. After all, he wasn’t really experienced. “Should I keep going?”

“Yeah.” She bit her lip, making Nemesis tremble, “Let’s keep going big guy.” Nemesis sighed a bit in contentment and his secreting tentacles, slithered around Jill’s boobs, squeezing to her moaning and biting her lips further as he started stroking between her legs. “Want me to take this off?”

Nemesis nodded. “Nah, you first Nemmy…” she chuckled, “I always wanted to know more about that body. And, not all of it was, me being a curious super cop.” He smiled, the word super cop reminded him of Carlos, but hearing her admire his body made him harder, “C’mon show me behind all the ugly tape you had on.”

“It isn’t tape anymore.” He slowly removed his leathers, his predatory instincts made him attuned to the tease, seeing Jill’s eyes on him fascinating him and helping his arousal. He was intentionally taking his time as well. Slowly removing his taped-up arm braces, the half-scratched throat limiter like buckles. Jill moved her hips a bit, her breasts moved with her making Nemesis grunt out a sense of desire in how her body moved. Toned and athletic. When he bared his arms she had cooed, he chuckled in slight and then immediately licked her face, “You like it, huh…?”

She nodded. He possessively, touched her neck, and caressed in an affectionate grip, “Say it.”

“Yeah, I like it.” She bit his cheek and he growled and let go, loving the ferocity, “Now, strip bitch.” He chuckled and complied.

His chest came out next and Jill giggled and nuzzled against a bit. Soon his cock was free. Jill started licking it. “This hard on for me, big guy?” she naughtily licked making his mind go blank for a few seconds as he growled and just shuddered a nod.

She squeezed his cock. “Say it, bitch. Out loud.”

“YES!” he roared out, unafraid of who might hear.

“Good boy.” She sucked him deeply, looping her tongue and just going for it. She could feel some tiny barbs on the sides along with smooth, hard ridges and lumps, “wow, a healthy and tasty cock.” She flicked it in her mouth, stroking it she naughtily asked, “Do you know how big it is? Want me to do a measuring trick?” he knew she was teasing as he was not fully hard yet but seemed be around six inches of his masculine self and she was cooing as she licked him harder and nipped at the barbs and risdges and lumps and saw him shudder and sink lower as she sat on the bed with his knees on support, going deeper into her mattress, “Fuck, big guy, you won’t last for long. Wanna spray it all on my face, huh?” He looked as if he was asking permission, Jill was elated as she slowly trilled out, “Maybe, if you make my mouth happy I might just let you, big guy.” Nemesis trembled. He was gonna cum on Jill’s face? All he had to do was make her happy? Hell, yes.

Nemesis looked at Jill, stroking and licking and pressing her tongue like stamps on his dick barbs (finger-like) and kiss his ribbed lumps, “Jill, am I?” he actually blushed, “Your first Tyrant?”

Jill actually laughed and smiled and kissed his cock, “Yeah, Nemesis. In a way, you are.” She then took on a naughty, aggressive look, “You want STARS.” Licking his cock while looking straight at his eye, “I will give you STARS.” And she put her mouth in so fast he almost lost balance and held a bed post and her shoulder for support. She sucked with a small laugh, loving his reactions, she mouthed his cock and felt it grew bigger, “Mmmm” she cooed, in happiness, _All for me, huh, guy, feels like the old days when you were out for blood but even better_.

Nemesis had to admit. This was WAY better than the fantasies he had imagined. He could not have guessed Jill’s enthusiasm and be captivated by it. This was one form of category he had failed to compute and happy he had failed to do so as he was being swept away by a pink mouth and tongue hounding on him as he held a bed post for dear life. Heard it somewhat _crack_ but he and Jill totally ignored that as it was no way of important at the moment. Nemesis felt her mouth going up and down and her hands playing and he was losing most of what he could bear.

Still, he stroked her sweet breast, holding them and squeezing and teasing them with his tentacles. Jill stopped to moan out loudly, pleasing him, even if it interrupted one hell of a blow job, Then, she continued again, slurping and turning and twirling, the heat of her mouth felt so good against his flesh and he bucked his hips now and then. He was attempting to restrain a bit, didn’t want to cum fast and he had been overstimulated from before. Cumming in Naia’s room. He did feel a bit of guilt in it, sharp and twisted. He hoped he was not betraying Naia After all, he still had a lot of heart and mind set towards her. Though, could he really just dash away his attraction for Jill when he was not with Naia? And, well, he and Jill had unresolved issues.

Jill looked up as he had actually forgotten he was having his cock sucked and she nipped into it crashing him back to reality and push his hips out further. Sinking into Jill’s mouth more making her gag a bit, while he wondered if he should pull out a bit she arrested his hips with her hands and moaned out, muffled yet strong, and twisted her sweet mouth over left and right making him bucks his hips in and out more. Not being able to contain himself in what he felt. He was just completely consumed with pleasure. His skin, mottled, had heat radiate from it, like the flesh, had some blood seem “luminescent” by his arousal and poked out threw his pockmarked canopy of a skin. He was feeling completely overridden by how his cock was being sucked so hard now by Jill who also played with his balls and etched her hands up and down. He was just intoxicated by it and began to rock his hips back and forth, growling and snarling, and giving short roars and let this pleasure consume him entirely. So wrapped in it he could have been hit on the head and wouldn’t care.

His hips kept on bucking. The joyous motion only intensified seeing Jill’s boobs bounce, to and fro, in their luscious symmetry. Held by his tentacles, they moved little, so he lessened the whole, their freedom pitched their movement higher, as if some kinetic force abiding by the rules of vectors and gravity without restraint and undisciplined in their rawness, he swallowed and moaned out a beastly moan, chattering his teeth, his maw salivating, some drops falling on Jill’s hair and she smiled as she turned her hands on his shaft too. Seeing his size grow longer and harder made her feel wetter. It was a ‘mutation’ she enjoyed. And, his bulk was really hard on her throat she pulled a bit out as his barbs were also stimulating her mouth sweetly and she enjoyed it, but it could be much on her. She would have never known.

Told her over twenty years ago that close to her forties she would be actually be doing this with Nemesis she would have looked at the person as though they were mentally compromised and needed hospitalisation. Now, it was a pretty awesome fact. She wouldn’t have it any other way and she knew Nemesis felt the same. She sucked off once and pulled away and lathered her own saliva at the head and the base and licked and touched and kissed and saw it shiver and throb and laughed happily as she popped in and out her mouth again spitting on it and licking one of his thighs. He tasted like smoke, heat, virility and masculine eruptions. She liked it as it was quite intense and she had missed this intensity.

She sank in again and Nemesis could not forget himself again and started slowly thrusting in and out of her mouth while his entire body shivered and shuddered. He growled and snapped in intervals. He also lightly slapped her breast with one of his tentacles making her giggle. And suck harder looking at him intensely with her mouth wide open and her ferocity apparent. And, the thin red line, thinned by the molten desire was snapping, as he moved in and out faster and she held her mouth wider for his pace and soon he burst into a white-hot flame of endless desire and grabbed the post hearing it creak harder as he moaned and then bellowed out a thunderous roar of completion.

All in Jill’s mouth, as she held on, wanting his spunk. Then expertly moved off a bit and saw his titan seed fall down and also spray on her face as she chuckled. As she had intended. Lapping a bit and seeing his sperm fall on the bed, “All Pent up and learning to SWIM.” She caressed his cock near her cheek and he flushed at hearing her comment.

Though he saw her and saw his seed on her face and immediately let out the last few drops as he groaned and hunched lower. Growling and rumbling. Tired in the slight. Jill seemed more than ready and smirked as she looked at him.

He palmed her face besmirched with his seed and licked it all off as he breathed heavy, lids droopy, not wanting her to stain in anything else than their mutual pleasure.

She pulled at him, he steadied himself as she made him go on top and he balanced not to make so much of his weight on her. Tyrant physiology softens a bit at sex though, the rush of chemicals and hormones helped as there were more quantities of it. She looked him in the eye, “Let’s get busy, big guy.” She slowly touched his penis, grabbed it making him jolt and growl and helped him inside of her.

After a moment, while she huffed, moaned and adjusted to his size, _Wonder if Tyrant dicks stay softer so to adapt with different beings like other Tyrant types and humans?_ As she felt fullness and a snugness with Nemesis inside of her. Younger her would be looking at her with shock. Nemesis was thinking younger him would have a stroke.

He slowly started a rhythm and tense a bit as Jill arched her back in pleasure and panted a bit, “You are a good size, big boy”

“I aim to please, Miss Valentine.” He smiled and licked her cheek as he slowly pulsed in and out and was getting used to her tightly pulsating walls and her rolling hips, which he gently caught in his arms. A tentacle slithered down to play with her clit, making Jill screech out and bit her lip to his smirk and a kiss to follow.

They were started to move heavy and Jill was moaning in tandem to Nemesis moaning and growling with some punctuating roars. He loved her slick on him and soon lifted her up a bit, pulled out and resumed in the famed doggy style as he kept hitting into her and feeling a sweet spot with Jill going, “Yeah, there, big boy.” Making him move harder and harder in there and also move his hips horizontally as well to temper in the feeling of bliss and hearing her moan louder when he did as if he was stretching her out and while he did it, side to side those barbs helped pinch her insides nicely. Nemesis may not be experienced but his willingness to pleasure her was making this experience heavenly. And, she liked it when a _man_ was having a good time too. Well, he was still a _male_ person albeit a Tyrant.

He had his hands on her hips as he continued feeling her out and sensing what she might like and which position helped him zone in more to his own much needed nerves and shaft. They continued in this position for a good ten minutes, with jets of water suddenly coming out from Jill, “Wow, fuck!” Jill did not squirt unless the person was good in knowing her sweet erogenous zones and Nemesis was getting good at it. Fuck, he seemed built for this. Nemesis lowered down to taste her juices and ejaculate and roared as he felt her rich pheromones and soon took her out again; his pre-cum mixing in with her long strands of juices and went back to being on top and tentacles squeezing her breasts and pinching her clit, while one held one arms coiled in it. Others coiled with her long hair, pulling slightly and she moaned, “Fuck, yes!” she kissed him and he roared in appreciation.

Their tempo was easily increasing and the noises were getting louder. Soon, he roared a deep, guttural roar and Jill clamped onto him as permission. And, he came into her as though there was no tomorrow. Jill also screamed as she reached her climax, seemingly multiple times.

Nemesis pulled out, he was shaking. He was exhausted. He was not really used to having sex. “Wow.” He growled it out wide eyes. Before them drooping and he stayed on Jill’s side.

She was still shuddering a bit and then laughed, “Gresham was right. Man, you are tentacle porn.” She kissed his cheek. Nemesis knew this time it was a compliment.

“Wouldn’t Gresham like to know?” He smiled. They both laughed.

Jill looked tired too. It seemed they both had needed all of it.

Nemesis eyes were hooded. Soon, he had a soft snore. And, Jill was beside him too. Sleeping.

* * *

“Hey, you are back.”

The voice was different but the words were the same as Draugen almost knocked out the library chair and saw one Kontane Vidane in front of him. “Oh.”

“Oh?”

“Oh. It’s you.”

“Wait, why did you need a thesaurus just to say that?”

Draugen groaned, “God, woman. Are you always a pain in the ass?”

“Maybe.” Kontane smirked.

“Weren’t you like some paper, hermit crab, scuttles around. Doesn’t make a sound. Tries not to get noticed. Why the fuck you here then?” Draugen stated at her, annoyed and tired.

“Are we in the beach?”  
  


 _What?_ “No.”

“Then do you have crabs? I sure ain’t.” Kontane chuckled.

_Why this little_ “Fuck you, Kontane. Your name…” Draugen looked mad, “Rhymes with Fountaiiine. Of Pain.”

“God, did your brain take a shit. For you to have that comeback?” Kontane looked bored.

Draugen’s scarred eye twitched. “I am studying.”

“What, basic skills for humiliation?”

“Nah, you jizz cracker!” Draugen balked at her, “Studying for Naia Nazari’s class.”

“Wait, I thought only the smartest Tyrants, showing academic promise, was in the class.” Kontane looked at him questionably.

Draugen clenched his book, then bopped her forehead lightly with it, “Believe it! I am in the class.”

“Not by merit.” Kontane rubbed her forehead and before he could say something she took his book and slapped it across his face and handed it to him back.

Draugen blinked. Did she just…? WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK! “Hey, man, I was reading this book!”

“So, I helped your face learn the material.” Kontane smirked.

“You, no-good weasel bitch. No wonder, no one asks you for the time of day.” Draugen snorted.

He was waiting for a comeback. Instead, as he looked up, he saw Kontane looked a bit shocked. And, a bit sad. She was starting to walk away.

_Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, Fuck._ “Hey, Kontane.” He walked behind her, though she didn’t acknowledge him, “Listen, I am sorry. That was mean for me to say.” She didn’t reply lighting his ire, “Hey, you insulted me first Kontane!” he roared, his voice reverberating in the library, and someone threw a stapler at his face, he caught it and saw 089 showing him the finger, so he flicked him back, “Kontane…” he whispered, “I am sorry…”

She didn’t reply. Kept on looking at shelves. Starting pushing a trolley full of returned books. She cringed as some of them obviously were not in a good condition. Someone, had teared one of the magazines, in a particular picture area, there was something…stained and cracked and she suddenly screamed: “Ewww! Not again!”

“What?!” Draugen asked and then saw what she was seeing, “Oh.”

“Eww. Help me throw this in the bin.”

“What, why?”

“Use your tentacles, Molty Golden Boy.”

“Don’t call me that. Then I will.” At least she was talking to him again.

“Fine. Fine. Just, throw it.” She shuddered, “Fuck some of you guys are just…” she looked disgusted, “Guys.”

“Wow, that sentence itself requires the Nobel Prize.” Draugen’s tentacle picked up the magazine and threw in the dustbin. No damage done. Nothing on him.

“I will share it on stage with you.” She smirked, “For being one of the contributors for the _sample_.”

“Fuck you, motherfucker.” Draugen stuck out his tongue.

“At least it won’t be your non-existent one.” She laughed.

“Hey, that’s cold. Even for you. Will you tease Batman for being an orphan?” Draugen folded his arms.

“No, you are right. But to be an orphan you need some ‘alive’ parents.” She stuck out her tongue at him.

“What are you some sort of word-sadist?” Draugen sneered and sighed.

“Oh, also, you can’t be Batman. He wears a leather suit and hides his face in public. You don’t need to.” Kontane snickered and he actually pulled her braid, “Ow, Ow.”

“Say that again.” He liked her hair in his hand. He liked her nice, soft mocha skin and her quick wit and mouth — wanted it on his — _Fuck. My. Life. For once, Overkill, don’t overkill it with your dick!_ Draugen still playfully pulled her braid, “Say it again.”

“Are you sure, Ow, Ow — is it some sort happy humiliation hour. Ow, Ow, okay, let go, let go.” He slid his fingers on the tail of her braid carefully as he let go, feeling a need, to touch her again and feel her hair, _What’s going on with me? She is annoying, she talks shit about me and talks back and she doesn’t treat me as a sex-king, why am I…I mean…she was also one of the first people I could be totally honest with. And, she was there for me. She doesn’t seem to_ …he gulped, hated to admit it, _Take most of my bullshit. Is that a good thing? Especially after yesterday when I felt a bit sad and hoped I didn’t fuck up my friendship any further_ —

“Hey, you are back.”

Draugen opened his eyes to the soft mellifluous voice of one 077-Slevin. For a Tyrant, the lilt of his soothing tones was quite unrivalled. It was if he could notice his voice anywhere. Even amongst a crowd. The tender sweetness of Slevin wrapped in the grey-blue skin of a ferocious Tyrant. So much of him contradicted thus tasted the more exquisite. Draugen was feeling so happy and stirring with an arousal. A need. Slevin was talking to him again. It made him feel he could just burst out of happiness. To know Slevin was NOT ignoring him anymore. What a blessing of life! It was as if he was like the like the literary icon, Dalloway, going in a Tyrant way of saying ‘What Lurk! What plunge!” inside his chest beating fast. A heart whistling to another heart — two ships in circulatory blood and one calling one to the other.

Draugen looked at the sharp, chiselled jaw of Slevin, those soft cheeks, the light tongue, slightly out, as if he was going to say something, yet closing wondering how and what to say, his face radiant like some greyish-blue sun, “Hey,” he started, unsure, the nervousness adding to his allure, Draugen was feeling light and airy watching his lean muscles, hard and fit muscle orbs inside sheathed by his flesh, shirtless and wearing a pair of sky blue boxers, toned and muscular legs with a lithe stance, the sweet bulky ‘V’ of his hips, reaching down to a valley of an embedded channel possessing a sweet stream; Draugen could only stare of the one called Slevin and shiver at its heat, its warmth and the demeanour of his lapping around his strong body with his sweet, tender tones that melted his hardness into some honeyed bowl of precious delights, “ I…I am really sorry.” Wait, the beauty was apologising? “I know I had the right to be mad.” Nice to know he was still determined in his principles, part of his charm was it, at least to Draugen, “But I didn’t wanna ignore you all the time and make you feel bad. I was so worried.” Those words made him feel his heart being hugged, embraced every string of vein and every quartet of blood, so good, yet so far away, could he even try? Slevin seemed to be the only person who cared about him. Or, outwardly showed it — who the fuck was he kidding? Slevin is the only person who cared about him! He was such a douche no one wanted him around. And, he had been so horrible to Lewis for no reason. Even Nemesis was pissed off at him. Which was saying something as that dude hardly showed many emotions aside ‘Why did he do that?’ and ‘Oh’ at him.

“Hey, Draugen, are you okay? Look, I am really sorry.”

Draugen sighed and closed his eyes. _I don’t wanna hide this anymore._

“Draugen? — wow, hey, you are naked again, better get some clothes on — uh…” Slevin was shut up when Draugen pulled him down kissing him. Slevin was a bit shocked and wanted to say something. The open mouth gave Draugen access as he slipped in his sweet, long tongue (an NE-T type trait) into the soft pinkish-red coil of Slevin. He rested his tongue for a moment, Slevin blushed deep, as an Elite Tyrant this looked deeper than in regular sized people, the leading beast of a male Tyrant almost closed his eyes, not fully against being kissed. Draugen smiled, his tongue still encased in the other as he slowly massaged it and hearing Slevin moan was like heaven to him. He kept on massaging, feeling so good as rubbed his large hands on the larger neck of the beautiful Elite Tyrant making him go “nghn.” The reactions made Draugen pleased and happy, the ability to tease and please this sweet one was making him so hot. He should be exhausted after all he endured and the session with Gresham yet Slevin put up his muscles and coils so much. The truthfulness of a confession in his kid made him feel so good. He did not know what Slevin thought. Right now, all he wanted to focus on was this kiss.

Slevin’s eyes closed and he moaned as he felt Draugen rub against him and pin him to a corner of the wall in his room. Mouths still entangled. Draugen rubbed up and down like he was some wet and hot towel for the gorgeous Slevin and noticed — _oh, my, Fuck, God, yes_ — Slevin was starting to get hard. _Yeah, baby, I want you to like me_ … Draugen slightly sucked, as much as he could having not strong “lips” but a precision jaw, on the tender and rolling hesitant tongue of Slevin. _He feels like heaven…_ Draugen trembled as he rubbed up and down on Slevin’s erection getting a growl and a moan from the taller Tyrant, who unconsciously bucked his hips and looked really stimulated. His dick got a bit bigger and he closed his eyes and breathed in and out; finding it hard to control himself. The hardness made it a bit harder for him to focus on anything else. Slevin hadn’t had sex in a while, or had masturbated well in the last two weeks. He was pent up. Draugen may not inimically stir his sexuality all the time as he thought him as a friend. Yet, could he deny the saunter of his frame, the tentacles swirl as though the sleeves or coattails of a dress or suit? The firm, sweet mottled flesh, its own beauty, its own classification of being wonderful, NE-T types had moulded and created Trypophilia, with their mottled flesh having the patterns of some silken-coarse butterfly or a killer moth meant to seduce with the outré before the kill or…the fuck.

Draugen’s hardly was letting him breathe. Now, even despite their height differences, he had him pinned strong, with his double set of tentacles aiding in this. Though if Slevin got serious, one could say Draugen would be missing one or two even if the victor could be either one. Slevin had hardly moved his tongue; if there was slight reciprocation before, with a flick there and a few there, now Slevin engaged, Draugen shivered and moaned feeling the strong, slender and muscular tongue of the Elite Tyrant, flatter than his sinuous own, pin down his tongue in a sweet hostage deal. The movement, fast yet also strong and tempered, as if he was sampling some juice or soup, made Draugen open his mouth wider, being overwhelmed by the strength of his friend and also seduced by the hypnotic way he could kiss. Both loving and fierce. Draugen also went into nipping and some softer jabs, could call it feminine in nature, yet their gender roles were never set and the experimentation brought Tyrants much pleasure. Draugen tilted his head further, not wishing to swept away by his empath friend’s virility and tenderness alone, but to fuse with it in a deepened pleasure. Slevin moaned and trembled as the sinuous tentacular tongue, along with its limb-positioned ‘siblings’ stroked his inner cheeks as his tentacles stroked his skin and just nabbed at his nipples in a possessive grip. Slevin was shaking. Such a stimulation of his mouth and body. Would surely make him cum in a matter of moments. The two sweated and finally, when Draugen and Slevin broke the kiss, a long heavy thread of saliva, with some sloppiness, hung between them and fell in drops, mimicking semen, on the floor.

Slevin’ eyes were hooded. He was still shaking from the pleasures of the kiss. Draugen looked wide, flushed in desire, his mottled skin, showing redder dots, luminous as though a many punctured lampshades or subtle lava lamp, blood circulating out of passion as he kissed the one he had been pining in some capacity. One of the only male people he liked. One of the people he had grown to love and respect. He had no idea how to bond. He felt some of it was taught to him by Slevin. His kindness and patience, his familiarities and understandings had made him lesser wild at times. He may be cocky. It was just him. But he yearned the soft skin to flush against his own bloody luminous tiny halos on his skin. He just loved Slevin. Maybe, they would remain friends. But he wanted so much more. Seeing Slevin blushing and flushing with such a deep pleasure, liking his tongue kisses and liked him stroking his half-attentive dick. His own cock was now throbbing harder, he thought he could sense pre-cum, after all, he was so excited to kiss _his_ beloved Slevin. How can he not be aroused and desiring this? He closed his eyes and smelled in his friend, who he loved dearly, perhaps his best friend, and caressed his smooth grey-blue head, contrasted as always, with NE-T types pinkish human skin like heads. Though neither of them possessed a human ‘race’, their race was usually bounded in their types and subsets. Even if their base DNA may more or less come from a Russian man, newer models had more DNA diversity. It was needed to have stable bodies as the humanoid DNA strangely required genetic variance and versatility to help stabilise their larger than life bodies, skills and abilities. Homogeneity could not be stable without her other self: Heterogeneity. It felt like a contradiction. Yet, it mattered in both humans and Tyrants.

Draugen nuzzled against the breathing giant. Slevin was catching his breath and Draugen his own. Nestled on his chest, loving the coolness and warmth. The scent of Slevin so nice, like paper and coffee and nice tidy sheets, compared to his musty smell of food, occasional cigars and excited hormones of a raging blood. He breathed in, nice and slow, against his chest. His tentacles not around Slevin, drooping to rest, now Slevin held him, with his powerful arms and Draugen loved their weight and power. They could, if controlled and let loose, end him in one punch and he shivered in delight to know they could also keep him so warm and safe. Slevin’s pants eased, “Draugen…I….”

“Could use a bit more?”

“What?”

Draugen looked at Slevin’s blushing face, “You know what I mean, big boy.”

“I…Draugen…we are friends, right? I mean…” Draugen caressed his mouth and lips.

“Shhh, beautiful. We don’t have to date. I don’t care.” Draugen licked Slevin’s lips.

“Is that what you want?” Slevin looked confused, “That’s not entirely fair to you.”

“Why not?” Draugen smiled, slyly, “I am getting you a bit boy.” He mischievously pinched Slevin’s dick making the other yell, “C’mon babe, let me take care of you as you are always taking care of me.” He smiled.

“What are you talking about? I haven’t really done anything.” Slevin was confused, slowly being led by Draugen, who pushed him softly on his bed, and crawled on top and Slevin could only see deep flames of want and affection in the other.

“I know you may like Naia. I know you may even like that bastard 089. But I am an asshole, and you always give me the time of day.”

“Draugen, friends are supposed to do that. That’s not.” He caressed his face, “Not something special. When you love your friends you wanna be there for them.”

“See, how many people say those words to me, Slevin?” he kissed a cheek, “You are so beautiful. You know that, right?” Slevin deeply blushed.

“Hey, don’t say that.” Slevin looked the other side, so tinged in reddish-blue it was intoxicating to look at.

“You know I am taking care of you and me. I wanna do this.” Draugen without delay, slipped of Slevin’s boxers, loving how the sky-blue light lit against the deep ashen type blue of the Elite Tyrant, unlike the more pronounced blue of the Hypnos Tyrants or the lighter ashy blue of Tyrant Rs and T-000 series, he teethed with his longer canines the white band of the boxers making Slevin hitch his breath and gulp down to see Draugen smiling at him mischievously and looking at his beautiful body as well, his skin and the faint bluish ‘scar’ that denoted the numbers ‘077’ on both of his upper arms, where those . He slipped off Slevin’s underwear and saw his half-hard erection; he smiled as he palmed Slevin’s erection, “Such a beauty; a beauty possesses a miniature beauty.” He gave it a long sinuously lick, Slevin bit his lip and moaned out, it started soft then turned throaty and needy, “Sorry, can’t resist little you.” Gave a smaller lick, “Yum.” Slevin was breathing hard and his cock twitched making him jolt and close his eyes.

Draugen was smiling. Then he looked a bit surprised as he felt Slevin touching his body, feathery hands and fingers caressing him, Draugen closed one eye and half-saw through Slevin touching him, “You are very beautiful too. I think you are more muscular than me.” It was true, Draugen was quite top heavy with additional toned shoulder and arm muscles to help support his double set of tentacles, though he was glad it worked on him, he preferred less muscle show and more muscle strength, as he knew Slevin could rival him any day without any problems. Draugen sighed and moaned as Slevin caressed his face and neck and everywhere, he loved those nimble fingers, less coarse than his, due to his mottled skin and his more delicate approach, “Draugen,” he lifted up and kissed him softly, “Don’t be sad. You are not alone, okay?” Draugen fell into his arms and held on, he had some tears come out, Slevin knew what to say didn’t he? Slevin kisses his tears away. He feels loved. Even if he doesn’t know which direction it will lead he is just happy to feel loved now.

He kissed Slevin once again. Only to move lower and start licking Slevin’s cock. Trailing his tentacles all over Slevin’s body. The mucous more wet now for his senses knowing of his sexual stimulation. Like saliva, it left small ‘kiss trails’ all over Slevin’s body. Like paint brushes, he moved them along his body feeling Slevin squirm and tense and twitch and his cock bob up and down as he slithered his tongue as much as he could. Salivating on it with minimum effort as his mouth became a cavernous pit of desire reserved for his beloved Slevin. Slevin started moaning again, feeling his wet mouth, with the sharp teeth nuzzling his shaft and he wanted to scream but pressed his mouth. What if someone heard? “C’mon dude,” Draugen used one of his purple tentacles slap his hand, “I wanna hear you.”

“But…? What if someone comes in? Like 022?”

“You really care about that?” Draugen looked annoyed, seeing Slevin blush, “I will tell him to fuck off…” then tilted his head as if he was sad, “Unless you are ashamed of me?”

“You know it’s not that!” Slevin looked wounded.

“Sorry Babe.” He didn’t want to kill the mood as he kissed and moved his hand up and down Slevin’s shaft as a way of apology. Slevin shivered and moaned again much to Draugen’s pleasure. “God, there has to be maybe one I think, no human could have predicted how **beautiful** you are.” Slevin flushed up. Draugen keeps on sucking now, as much as he can having no lips yet his gums make a good enough substitute as he is able to move his teeth in a way his gums are pressing more against Slevin’s shaft. Slevin is twisting and turning, for his mouth and his tentacles moved up as much as he could do, multitasking can be a bit of a bitch, but he is so happy to know he can make Slevin feel good. Draugen looked at him for a moment, closed his eyes to enjoy blowing off his best friend. Tasting his sweet cock in his mouth. Moaning as he sucked, loving such a good Elite Tyrant cock, now almost blossomed into its full length, in his mouth. He was pretty happy.

Suddenly, he felt he was being lifted and turned around a bit. Saliva fell out and in layered lines stained Slevin’s cock as he felt something on his own cock. An engulfing that made him roar and growl and made Slevin _growl_ , almost possessively too. Now, Draugen had to look beat red and shy now. His cockiness dissipating as an Elite Tyrant clamped down on his hips, making him almost breathless, marvelling at the strength of the kind Slevin. He was clamped down in a way it was hard to escape. _Fuck, this guy…this guy…_ Draugen looked flustered as Slevin smiled with his cock in his mouth and licked around some loops in it making him growl and moan. “Fuck, Fuck…Slevin…” he was moaning so hard and sucked Slevin’s cock again as he felt being pushed against the edge as Slevin’s tongue and lips were lathering him with a force he did not know Slevin’s mouth to possess aside the preluding kiss. He0 was giving nips and small bites too shuddering Draugen to his core. “Slevin, are you gonna make me cum before you…” he stuck out his tongue feeling like Slevin’s whore, proudly too, “Not happening.” He was gonna make him his whore as well. Sucking down and using one of his tentacles to move up and down, hearing himself and Slevin moan as they both were sucking each other hard.

Slevin’s mouth was so hot and delicious on his cock and he didn’t want it to end one bit. How could he make it perpetuate for all eternity on some crack-of time loop? He was so eager and hot. All he wanted at the moment, was right here. He kept on using his tentacles to pinch and probe as his mouth swallowed Slevin’s dick hungrily as if it was a cure for hangover or mood swings. Feeling Slevin moan and shudder made Draugen so happy though he too twisted and coiled in the deft hands and vice grip of Slevin’s large and powerful hands and the swift arms, pressing with him almost by instinct. Draugen was so heady with want, his saliva trailed down, even in gobs, he was overstimulated by being sucked and sucking. He was close to his limits. Slevin’s skin felt so nice, lean and good. Slevin was fidgeting in and out, _He gives really…good head…._ Slevin and he were sweating and secreting saliva and tentacle trails and now more than pre-cum was coming out.

Draugen’s eyes went whiter than they were as the thunder cracked and he edged his mouth to roar feeling so out if it and shuddering. He braced himself and also grabbed Slevin’s thighs not wanting his mouth to leave his sweet cock. Slevin still held on so as his eyes rolled he realised Slevin wanted his cum as she sucked a bit weakly and felt a ringing in his ears of his own heart. He let go of the cock only for a while and roared more loudly as he felt his white hot cum fill Slevin’s mouth. Slevin slowly, as him milking him sweetly, did long and steady sucking motions with his tongue to draw his seed out, thick and coaxing it to fully submit its fill. Draugen moaned once and went back to sucking and soon enough, Slevin, in middle of coaxing Draugen’s cock, felt his stomach knot and twist as Draugen held on, wanting his semen as a sign of nonverbal agreement, Slevin started growing and roaring with a cock in his mouth and after a drop was consumed, moved away to fully let out a big growling roar as all his cum went to Draugen’s mouth who licked and swallowed it all up with greedy pleasure.

They both were completely out of breath. Why was lovemaking much harder than battle and training? Maybe Naia would answer that in her class? Who knew?

Draugen rested and licked his cum smeared cheeks and went up to Slevin’s head, who was also wiping his mouth with his hand, “That was…Draugen…”

“Fucking awesome. I know.” Draugen caressed his face, “I love you, ya know. Maybe, at times more than a pal.” Licked his cheeks, loving his scent. He nuzzled his maw close to his neck, happy to sink into his heated flesh and pheromones.

“I love you pal. This was…” Slevin blushed, “Unexpected. I am just happy you are feeling better too.” He kissed his head and held him close. Draugen felt protected. He loved the feeling. Slevin wondered what Nemesis had spoken ‘Tolerance, at times, could be a form of love.’ He blushed a bit deeper. Though he was now feeling romantic and got on top and kissed Draugen who, despite their activities, kissed hungrily back.

Slevin would have been fine with it. Fine with what they did. Only, Draugen was in full force. He spread wide his hips and legs. A tentacle teasing his hole, “So, wanna play, baby?” Slevin’s saliva dropped on Draugen’s abdomen, who chuckled, as he gulped it back in.

“Draugen, I, Are you sure about this?” Slevin caressed his face. Draugen loved this about him. His infinite store of care. It seemed strange he was so caring and also a Tyrant. Perhaps, he was the antithesis who balanced the cosmic equation. After all, humans were said to be kind yet were they products of their kindness? No. Slevin was answering back their penchant for violence with his own behaviour of compassion and commiseration. If a satirist of some bygone century saw this they would easily spoke of how evolutionary impulses could indeed be specialised via individualistic DNA choices. A smaller hand caressed Slevin’s face back.

“If I was not sure.” He smiled, his teeth all eager as he licked his mouth and chin, with his long, sinuous tongue, “I would never have made it this far. I am not called “Overkill’ for no reason. If mentor is Nemesis. I am Overkill. And, I can make blood in war and blood rise in the sheets.” He didn’t care if he sounded a bit corny, he wanted his tongue to display his need to be seductive, “C’mon, babe, fill me up with all you can offer. I wanna see what you got.”

“Just don’t hold back as you do in training.” Slevin looked cocky as he winked but tenderly smiled and kissed him, and slowly palmed and tugged Draugen’s cock as he prepared his own to satiate the other male Tyrant.

“Oh, I don’t think I can if I tried.” Draugen bit his own chin, hard, a small wound appeared, a bruise if nothing more. He looked at the Elite Tyrant’s size in anticipation. The rives, ridges and ‘hard’ veins were more prominent in Elite Tyrants and T-000 models. NE-T types has some small barbs that helped pleasure but their ridges lacked the height of impression afforded to those types of Tyrants. Hypnos ones had two blue ‘hard’ veins in accordance to their one arm being darker and like their arm it helped in precision pleasures as they could get a good jab into sweet angles. Tyrant R had a very coarse head, which made playing around all the more fun. Of course, individuals have always their own special skill sets.

They were lubricated by their sweat, saliva and semen and slowly Slevin pushed forward. It was only a little and Draugen clawed at his bed. Was Slevin, teasing? A lit flashed on Slevin’s eyes confirming he was. Draugen gave a pleading look, rewarding him with a kiss as Slevin masterfully entered bit by bit, each bit pressing harder in with his ridges and bumps and moving as if he was slowly seducing the hole open with some cock incantation. Draugen began to tremble as if he was losing control so easily. Even after he came so much? Well, it was Slevin. Soon, he was hilt and all in. Slevin moved in an arc making Draugen gasp and growl and buck his hips up. And, holding Slevin’s shoulders. Then haughtily, with passion he made his tentacles grab at Slevin’s limbs as if he was not going to this be inescapable. Slevin smiled.

Soon, their hips rocked as they growled, kissed and felt the mount of the pleasures exchanged by their sexes, bodies and kisses. Draugen snapped his teeth in excitement and bit Slevin’s check, “Yeah, make me your bitch today.” Nips at his nose and nipples making Slevin move faster and moan and growl out. The pressure on his limbs from Draugen’s tentacles added to the pleasure as he felt warm and tingly, the flesh of the tentacles on his arms and legs was quite snug and nice. It had been a while and he was enjoying it so much. He started gritting his teeth as he felt Draugen’s squeeze into him making him yell and roar in response. He closed his eyes and enjoying Draugen who in the meanwhile stuck his tongue out and licked Slevin’s face as he also moved his hips to keep the tempo.

Soon, they were moving really fast. Slevin punctuating some of his thrusts by stopping to hit hard and do half-circles in Draugen making the other roar and growl and squeeze down harder with tentacles, himself and hands. Making both of them moan as they felt their pressure coming up. “Let’s…together….” Slevin suggested, hardly being able to keep his eyes open and finding it hard to speak as he kept feeling like a happy hostage in those overexcited tentacles. Draugen threw his head back and roared and was snapping his teeth in feeling the exquisite moves of Slevin’s cock.

“FUCK! YES! BABY! TOGETHER!”

Draugen was now bashing his hips against Slevin. This intensity was more pleasurable than his fuck with Gresham. He felt at home with Slevin’s cock. They were communicated so beautifully such perfection could be criminal. Without feelings of inadequacy or having his emotions castrated by the lack of after coitus cuddling and embracing. Slevin could feel Draugen’s ass own him with successive squeezes and rolling of hips making him feel he could be crushed in this ecstasy of sex and deep lovemaking. Yes, even if they had some ambiguity in what their relationship was now, their friendship was stable and they loved as intimate friends could love. Slevin felt few stray pearls rush out already and knew he was going to be a mily volcanic in around a few moments with abandon and high-pitched primal noises.

Draugen’s dick leaked out and was splashing Slevin’s cock and stomach with his cum and soon Slevin roared along with his fellow Tyrant as the tentacles kept him in check and he filled up Draugen. He kept on cumming as though Draugen would not be satisfied until he was a dry well, the thought making him scream and roar in some climactic oblivion with his eyes blurring and Draugen’s white eyes flashing and skin pockmarked become redder, flushed in places as he kept on producing cum and feeling himself squeeze Slevin for all he was worth.

The bliss ended. The exhaustion overcame then. Draugen and Slevin fell asleep. It was an hour in when Draugen woke up and slowly pulled himself out from Slevin. Who muttered in hbis sleep and woke up, rubbing his eyes, “Hey.”

“Hey. I may need to take a shower. You don’t have a tight schedule today do you?” Draugen kissed him.

“Nope. I still got time.” Slevin laughed and Draugen could only smile. As Slevin got up, he walked to his own bed and plopped down. Taking his boxers. He saw Draugen who went over and kissed him again.

“Need to go take a shower and go to the doctor for a medical check-up” Draugen explained. Slevin nodded. “So, uh, are we like still friends?”

“Yes, of course, you want more?” Slevin cocked his head.

“Do you?” Draugen asked.

“I kinda like Naia. You are right.” Slevin asked, “I don’t mind making it work with you. I mean, it is shitty of a friend to just wham slam Thank you Tyrant you know.”

_To be fair, he was almost more honest than me, besides I was thinking of Gresham too, who wouldn’t care if I had a boyfriend, may even stop seeing me if I told him, but I can’t stop seeing him, not yet anyways, but at least Slevin wanted to meet me halfway_ , “Can we still be friends? You want that right?”

Slevin blushed and nodded, “I like us as friends.” Then he tugged on Slevin’s penis making the other gasp, “Though,” he traced his fingers on it as Slevin watched him bend a bit, “I want little Slevin sometimes too. Call me selfish.” Licked his head, “Can I?”

Slevin had to smile a bit, “Okay, as long as I have not approached anyone else. Sure.”

_Honest to the bone_ , Draugen smiled, realising why he loved Slevin so much and he had become his best friend. It was not merely the attention but these dedicated principles he had which made him easily swoon.

Though as he left for taking a shower and dressing up he started feeling odd — guilty and regretful. He had seen, in a glint of desire, Slevin, honest, pure and true, had held out his arms. He had wanted to cuddle with him as a gesture of goodness and care with equalled trust. And, he had strayed away from it. Not out of intent yet compulsion. He realised Gresham was beginning to get to him in a way he had not intended and it was beginning to worry him —

“Uh, Draugen.” Back to the immediate lived out present, he looked at the soft tug he still had on Kontane Vidane, who materialised as his memory of yesterday’s lovemaking with Slevin went away. “Are you okay, you are not hurting me, but you are a Tyrant and I am having a hard time to let go of my hair from your grip.”

“I had sex with Slevin.”

Kontane looked at him wide eyed and he just looked out at her with trembling hands. Letting her hair go, she looked a bit away, out of focus — wait, was she looking kind of…sad? It disappeared before he could actually ask her anything about it. “And? You guys together.” She gave a naughty sort of smile, Draugen found himself immediately attracted to. He had been attracted to multiple people before. It was normal within Tyrants and humans, even if they didn’t always wish to admit it due to cultures, yet, this seemed different. At times, he wanted to pull away from Slevin. Even if he just met Kontane, he had a magnetic pull towards her. “Not that I think you really deserve him” she looked at her nails.

“Yeah,” he gulped, “I know.”

Kontane looked at him, “Hey, I was joking.” She went up to him, “It’s fucked up for me to actually mean that. You are not a bad guy. Yeah a class A dick but you are also kind.”

Draugen had never found someone else aside Slevin calling him kind before. “I don’t know. Saving a pregnant lady alone doesn’t make me poster boy for kindness.”

“Well, maybe not, but you don’t mean to hurt people badly. That is a good quality. I have noticed you around. You know your limits. So,” she tilted her head cutely at him, he noticed her small but full breasts, semi-toned and fit frame, though a thinner waist than Jill Valentine and Naia Nazari, and she was tall with long limbs and fingers. Draugen found it odd. He was flirty, easily attracted, hell if Byron said they could fuck he would happily agree. But, with Kontane, he did not know how to place it, but her running mouth became a precious thing to him. It was a comeback more so than an insult; if things made sense to him. He had never had such a good rapport with a human being before not to mention other Tyrants aside Slevin.

“I…aside this.” He looked at her and showed the book _Why We Love_ , “This book is very _cutting_ into me. It’s like some of my worst shit laid bare and other insecurities. If it is like this in three chapters. I hate to read the whole thing!” He meant it, it was like a weird vasectomy of his soul where he was being severed from numbness and the fertile plains of ‘don’t-give-a-fuck.’

“You are actually _reading_.” Kontane made a face as she was meeting the man on the moon while it was blue making Draugen growl and snort.

“Well, yeah, fuck, Gresham told me to pay attention to class nor else my ass is grass. And, he told me to read the materials mostly and take notes and shit if needed. Not just to heard the damn audio book collection.”

“I heard from Stuart Naia bought you guys copies with her own pay as Kensley did not want to share budgets with her.”

“What, Kensley is a royal A bitch. I bet she is a bad lay too!” Draugen found it a bit embarrassing an employee had to pay for their books and even Kontane did not look too Impressed at Kensley’s ‘micromanaging.’

“Yeah when Stuart stated it was a book from over ten years and it wouldn’t cost a lot of money, she looked at him in a way, which was basically the end of the conversation. I mean for Stuart to lose this job would be like an early retirement so I get the man.” Kontane smoothened out her braid.

The library was pretty quiet. It was getting close to the evening. Soon, a few Tyrants would come here for sex if nothing more. Though more expanded hook-ups could happen in the dorms.

“Hey, if you wanna review the chapters, I can with you.”

Draugen looked at her, “What do you need in return?” Wasn’t there usually a catch with humans? Or, most people?

“Nothing really. Well, we can sometimes have Lucas’s coffee if that is alright with you.” She stretched and Draugen was looking at her long arms and shifting braid and cool black eyes closing as she stifled a yawn. “What you say?”

“Sure, I am bad at staying still and reading anyways and I find this embarrassing to share with Slevin.”

“What? The fact you are bad at reading or the book’s content?”

“Both.”

* * *

“I am sorry.” Nemesis was a bit out of breath as he came in, he knew he was five minutes late, _I overslept in Jill’s room_.

Naia looked at him and smiled. It burned him a bit. “Hey Nems. We are just getting started.” Nemesis nodded and came inside. He saw Draugen sitting next to Slevin and he waved at Slevin more but Draugen also gave him a thumbs up.

“Hey Pops.” Pops? Nemesis looked at Draugen.

“Well, guys, before we start.” Naia was wearing a nice denim jumpsuit with brown ankle length boots, like nice deep leathered brown with wrinkles, Nemesis wanted to kill himself with how good she looked and noticed Slevin and 089 also looked at her with more interest than the others, who had noticed her curves and she was looking like the beauty she was, “Have you guys decided on names?”

022 raised a hand, “May I go first?”

“Yes, of course.” Naia smiled.

“I am Freyr. I just associated with the roots of this name a lot.”

“Ivar.” 032 muttered, confidently.

“Archer.” 045 blushed and looked shy.

“Innara!” 053 boisterously with energy, “He is a god of forests and I love nature!” Everything was charmed by his enthusiasm.

“Veles.” 089 spoke and the strength in the name was felt in his voice, “Let’s say it is like Loki but I like its rarity and it may mean more than a god of mischief. I am all for his dichotomous nature. Mortals are meant to be controversial.”

“God, 089, even when you choose a name you got to such a scholar’s tit.” Draugen balked at him.

“Do you know the roots of your name?” Veles stared at him.

Draugen looked down, “Nope.” Veles snickered and Draugen flicked him.

Naia clapped, “Okay! THOSE ARE SUCH AWESOME NAMES!” she actually did a small jump up and down. Nemesis and Slevin swooned, Veles smirked and everyone else loved her energy.

“Now, what did you think of the materials I gave you to read.”

There was a silence until the former 022, now Freyr, stated, “Bingo the dog should be yeeted to the sun for cheating on Violet the pug.”

“Oh my, I feel for her so much. He was being such, a dog! Poor Violet!” Innara clutched his chest, he was sitting next to Nemesis as usual.

“Okay, do we know whatever happened to Misha?” Slevin asked, “I mean that poor dog was separated from his one true love, Maria the Husky, I hope we get to know what happened to him.”

“Okay, I don’t know why the fuck that bird fucked up his mate’s feathers. Like, was he so sure she was a cheat?” Draugen asked, and everyone looked at him, “What, yes I did fucking read the chapters!”

Innara and Nemesis snickered and he stared daggers at them.

“Sexual exclusivity was interesting.” Veles pointed out, “We Tyrants need to come into terms with it or without it, acceptance is a part of the Tyrant world as well as the human one.”

“Foxes sound interested.” Nemesis offered, “I heard they were clever creatures but…” his mind went back to his fuck with Jill for a bit and he shook his head slightly and seeing Naia smile at him was a bomb and he muttered, “I mean it is nice they just also prize their mates so much.”

“Tyrants also have a lot of connection with scents so I really liked that part.” Archer noted.

“Mate preferences, I am just so happy to read on them. Makes me feel not alone in understanding this,” Ivar pointed out.

Naia was so happy, “You guys are giving me A LOT to work with. Thank you so much!” she was bustling with energy, the coffee and her excitement was paying off, “Well, this is something I wanted to say, Love is also an Act of Doing, as Fischer pointed out, obstacles or any feelings that one could lose a lover and work on it is a very important part of loving someone. Doing things for your loved one and loving someone actually means love is not simply a word, a noun to define something, but it is also actions and those actions matter a lot.” She was fixing up her laptop and put the projector on, as it was finally darkening there was no need for curtains this time. A music came up, haunting and sort of gothic.

The Tyrants read something on the browser window, the name said LOVED by Alex Ocias and seemed to be a game. The words ‘Are you a man, or a woman?’ came on the screen. Draugen looked confused, Freyr looked at Innara and Ivar questioning, Archer shared a look with Nemesis who shrugged but he looked as curious as Slevin and Veles.

“Well, let’s play _Loved_ by Alex Ocias to help us start today’s lesson.” Naia smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So guys please comment what you thought!
> 
> Will Nemesis and Jill keep on fucking? Will Draugen get his bearings right? What happened with Naia and Leon and Gresham? How are the Tyrants' new names? What is this game Loved by Alex Ocias? Will Slevin get to say his feelings for Naia? Will Nemesis? STAY TUNED
> 
> Also, this chapter was the first Tyrant x Tyrant goodness hehe.
> 
> Loved by Ocias is a great free game that subtly explores abuse, gender dysphoria, transphobia, gaming issues and a lot more. Give it a play if you guys want.


	11. The Act of Doing (ii)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, this chapter is shorter
> 
> WARNING: This chapter details things like abuse, transphobia and unhealthy relationships. Please be warned for triggers and stay safe. 
> 
> Name and Tags Recap:
> 
> 077 - Slevin  
> 089 - Veles  
> 053 - Innara  
> 022 - Freyr  
> 032 - Ivar  
> 045- Archer

**The Act of Doing (ii)**

“Are you a man, or a woman?”

The game’s screen flashed and Nemesis, Slevin and the others look at it, questionably. _What does it mean?_ Slevin looked on curiously, _Seems like a trick question?_ He wanted to know as this was getting interesting. Nemesis looked at bit suspect. _Why is this game asking for our preferred gender or assigned ones? Is there a reason? Is it just cursory data collection? An introduction?_ He was thinking what other reasons a browser game could have asking this question unless they want, what did Hayden once¯ was talking about with Lewis in front of him before they got close, data mining. He wondered if it was safe to provide such information though what could a browser analytical tool have for the preferred tastes of Tyrants? Given they knew the participants are Tyrants. Such data collection without UN intervention would be a global crime from what he remembered being told by Nian Zhen.

Only coordinated facilities, such as their own, has the ability to take informative assessments of sentient BOWs and Tyrants as a) They were not the typical consumers and b) They were, to some capacity, vulnerable and marginalised (though this statement confused him) as they were Tyrants it was easy to treat them as consumerist fetishist objects so the UN had made it more than a typical mandate especially apparently some years ago humans were selling private data to third part dealers without their knowledge, which resulted in a horrible year and the upgrading of secure data and even a redefinition of what was privacy and what was private data interpellated through services from small clerical offices to institutions such as think tanks and universities. Nemesis found it interesting as well, as a BOW, he had imprinted with sensitive data himself and it had been questionable back in the 90's. If a tribunal was set up and he had no UN amnesty he could be sued even if his cognizance of those matters were limited. Though suing him would be a fool’s errand as the typical consumer would only be able to use him as a bodyguard and what else? His stuff was already on record and he had no possessions. Any legal court cases would have to go through Blue Umbrella and they had official sanctions and pardons. Of course, as a piece of ‘tech’ he would definitely have to abide by more rules now. The subject did fascinate him. As, like the limitations of his body against a body of selected knowledge, he also felt the limitations of humans as bodies of information and bodies protected and excluded from protection. It felt like, he and the disenfranchised humans, or marginalised humans, included workers in the Arrkoth facility had this in common. It was interesting considering aside base DNA he had not thought how humans and him were connected. Even if the connections were ‘artificial’ (that term was up for debate as social norms could become ‘inherently embedded’ with how someone lived). He had realised this when he broke the wall into Jill’s apartment. The small enclosed space was a ‘world’ to Jill, which was funny. It was decent sized but smaller than other spaces.

He still remembered he had been waiting for Jill to come back from the bathroom. Back when he was meaning to obliterate her existence. There was no real challenge in killing someone incapacitated in a bathroom. He heard her say “Too many pills”, at the time he had not questioned what she meant. Yet now, he partly got her and it made him sad knowing she was so depressed. Especially, now, as he had slept with her. He could feel her loneliness meshing with his. Her need for control as much as his. Loving feeling her insides and how she had come without restraint; giving him permission to do the same. After coitus, when he held her, he liked it, it was nice to hold Jill without meaning to murder her and redefine the term with blood and guts everywhere. Though he wondered if she still took a lot of pills now or have gone a bit on a dry spell? He did not care as she should do what made her healthy and happy. He liked squeezing her breasts, they were full, smaller than Naia’s (not fair to compare) and he had kept on nuzzling into them after sex and she had laughed at his eagerness. The laugh of hers was nice and he had never thought he would cause her to laugh in such a pure, delightful way. He had swallowed as he felt so comfortable and then when they fell asleep he had dreamed of clawing out of depths of abysses and loneliness. To a star filled lake and sky, a bluish-green figure, almost like a flame on wood looking and smiling at him.

_Naia?_

He had woken up for a bit to only sleep again. _And, I was thinking of what Nian Zhen told me about data privacy to also NOT remember having a great fuck with Jill Valentine_. He was groaning a bit. Having sex like that was sooo fucking good. Even if, he and Jill did not know what they felt for each other fully. They had sexual chemistry and they did like each other sexually. Nemesis looked at Naia and still felt a soft tinge of guilt. She looked so beautiful, with her smile and kind, big eyes all sweet and attentive, and he hoped he did not ruin his chances with her. Would she displeased knowing? Would she care? He was scared as this was a Catch-22 for him. He would be severely bothered if she not care and would be severely bothered if she did. _I hope I don’t inadvertently make her go to someone else_ , This made him grip the table, hard, _Wait, what if that happens?_ He did not understand why he was being so possessive. He just met Naia. Well, he had just met Jill too back then when he was screaming STARS and out for blood. With Naia, it just felt so different. He had not really felt like it for a human being, let alone most people. Yes, he felt similarly for Jill and Carlos. Yet, it just didn't fully resonate in the same way. With Naia he had more calm but also a fever. Even if it made less sense it was a sense he was willing to go all out for. What did it mean?

“Do you guys have the laptops I asked you to bring?”

Nemesis had not been issued his one. Hayden had made an official request. Also, seeing he had special privileges the laptop would be customised differently. “Yeah, we have ours.” The others got it out. Even Draugen seemed to bring his, _It’s a good thing Kontane reminded me, I guess as she is a librarian she has access to the chalkboard to help out with our classes_ , Draugen groaned a bit as he accidentally opened his laptop and the first thing loading was a porn clip he had had streamed earlier, a girl was screaming: “YEAH! BABY! CUM IN ME!” and a guy going: “YEAH I AM GONNA CUM IN YOU HARD! I AM GONNA FUCK YOU SO GOOD!”

Everyone looked at Draugen. Nemesis actually put his palm up to his face, Innara looked quietly embarrassed so did Archer, Freyr looked shocked and Ivar snickered, Veles looked so amused the grin he had was a statement in and of itself considering who it came from, Slevin was staring with ‘what-the-fuck’ expression at Draugen, who actually started looking awfully embarrassed and blushing, “I...uh...I am sorry everyone…”

“It’s...ok…” Naia was so red, she shivered a bit. Her body language was noticed by Slevin, Veles and Nemesis.

_Shy one, huh?_ Veles licked his lip. _Exciting_.

Nemesis felt something twitch, _Wait, what? I am excited by her shyness?_ Nemesis actually looked away so flustered. _What is wrong with me? Why does anything Naia do make me so off to the edge?_ And, remembering how he had came in her room earlier in the morning wasn’t helping. In fact, it stimulated more than the _actual_ fuck he had with Jill Valentine.

Slevin looked transfixed on her blushing face, _I wanna kiss her_ _face_ _...No, Slevin, don’t think it so apparently. You just had sex with Draugen. And, he is here!_

Draugen looked with jealousy at Slevin’s face. _I bet you wanna kiss her you moron. Fuck, I will fuck you both if I have to. Besides_ , he checked Naia’s face and body, _She is fucking hot too. Like chubby and cute. Wanna press my_ _c_ _laws on those cute fatty layers. Hehe,_ his penis twitched _, I can go for days. Fucking is fun_. Slevin looked at Draugen tongue slightly out.

_I bet that fucker is thinking of sex_. He smiled and Draugen looked at him and he smirked, making Draugen lose his cockiness for a second. Losing it more, when Slevin, slightly gave a affectionate but subtle air kiss at him. Obviously, being his caring self. Draugen blushed and flipped him and Slevin chuckled.

Naia wondered when was the last time she saw porn. God, I am a pent up asshole. And, then regained her bearings through her flushed face, smiling, “Well, that kind of excitement can be private for everyone here..” she giggled. Innara giggled with her so did Freyr, Ivar and Archer, all of them thinking she looked cute as she said it. Slevin blushed a bit at her face, she looked dreamy to him, Draugen sighed and smiled, she was cute, Veles licked his lips again.

Nemesis had a soft kind of hard-on. _Fuck you dick. It’s like after over twenty years anything goes for you_. He felt frustrated, Naia’s voice and sweetness was beckoning all of his deep erogenous side. There was a need to make love but...there was also a need to love her and make her happy in bed, _What does that mean?_ He wondered. Though he knew the organ would slowly go down on its own. He was now interested why Naia wanted them to have laptops. _She wants us to play the game? In class? Interesting. I did not know schooling would entail this_. He had seen Hayden and Lewis play games in their mobiles, even before they had become better acquainted and now are friends for over a week. It seemed they had always wanted to know him better. His words and actions had given them permission. He felt nice on it. It meant he had more agency he realised. Making friends seemed odd for him as it was never his original function. Well, Hayden and Lewis, almost always were scolding by a higher scientist, outside the room, the voice sounded familiar now, it may have been the wretched Dustin, telling them to stop fucking loafing around and do their jobs. So, he had associating this form of gaming as leisure; not necessarily educational.

“Don’t worry, Nems.” Naia spoke to him, with her light trill and fondness, making his heart sway, though he had a hard time looking at her, even with his luminous moon of an eye, “You can use mine. I know Tyrant laptops are a bit larger but this game uses like basic arrow keys so you can use them. It’s a good thing you are not a Steel Tyrant.” she joked, as they could find it complicated. Nemesis weakly smiled. He just felt uncomfortable with her closeness now because he felt sad he had done something with Jill. Though, he smiled at her a bit confidently later, it may not matter. He liked she was being supportive of him. I didn’t, what do humans say, ‘cheat’ on her. It was strange. The act of being faithful if not exclusive monogamy seemed to be ‘wired’ within them too. It could be because of the fact they had humanoid DNA, also, as the book he read, many animals exhibited the same tendencies. Though, even if animals can be polyamorous and it was completely acceptable, there seemed to be rules concerning this, as he was reading in the book with elephants and monkeys. Polyamory, like monogamy, as he learned the terms, required some rules, if not set in stone, but chiselled enough to abide by and there seemed to be a respect in this. After all, the war he fought in Raccoon City and within himself, there had been no ‘set’ rules for his pain, for his mutations, nothing to measure or weigh, just to _live_ even if it could be called living, through all the horrible transformations and just keep on going. No tiredness. No pain. No need for rest could impede him. After all, it was being signalled to him via a neurotransmitter as well. Aside his own need to want to settle scores with Jill. A part of him, still couldn’t believe, give their history, they had sex. And, good sex. Or, perhaps, it was because and not in spite of.

It made sense. They made sense in the context. For the long run? Once upon a time, just even two weeks ago. If you had told him. He would have been so elated. He would have pursued Jill and tell her to make things work. Now, after all these fantasies, all these imaginations at play, he could not picture himself with Jill as clearly as he could even a month ago. The main cause was obviously Naia. He could have imagined her come into being. Now, here she was in, manifested, in sweet, fluffy flesh. If she did want him, if she would want him. He would never hesitate. One could argue if it was bound to change. Well, he was open to changes. But, this time, he doubted it a bit more. He had other attractions: he liked Jill, still got a hard on for Carlos, was a bit smitten with Slevin, and found Hayden and Lewis to be so cute. They hadn’t really budged the depth of his growing feelings for Naia. He had entertained even sex with Jill might have. Ironically, it made him feel a bit frustrated, despite the great sex because well, Naia slipped into his thoughts but in a good way. _The person who wrote this love books said ‘Intrusive Thoughts’ and I guess it makes sense now more than ever_. He grumbled.

“Don’t worry Nems. I am sure you will get your laptop soon. And, if you have problems, I can help you out.” Naia presumed he had grumbled for other reasons, Nemesis was thankful.

Naia now faced the class, continuing her instructions, “Now, people. This game can be frustrating. It is meant to explore various things such as abuse and game design. It is meant to be disturbing and can cause people with gender dysphoria or any kind of bodily dysphoria, which has its own wealth of research in human beings, and,” she intonated, making Nemesis and Slevin look at her mouth closely, Veles noticed as usual, she was wearing nude lip balm, the pink-mauve of her natural lips came out, more pronounced, “Tyrants as well. It has been observed that NE-T Types do have dysphoria and some of the T-000 models and some Elite Tyrants as well. All dysphoria is not the same and all have their own importance. So, the game allows you to explore them in a way, elements as disturbing as this, including slight transphobic remarks, in a sand box sort of environment. Safe enough.” she continued, “However, it can be shocking and frutrating. So, to make it fair. Let’s have a calm person, let’s say Innara.” 053 smiled and Naia looked at Draugen, “And Draugen, who is hyperactive.” _Well, can’t argue_ , he thought, as he started playing the game.

“Are you a man, or a woman?” Innara selected ‘man’ on his track pad, the answer came out, “No, you are a girl.” For both him, and Draugen.

“What the — I am not a girl!” Draugen looked more embarrassed than enraged. Ivar started snickering, “Ivan! I swear I will break you into pieces!”

“It’s Ivar.”

“Sure, Caviar.”

Ivar glared at him and showed his elbow up in an ‘up yours’ move.

“Yeah, we all wanna do me but you know we can’t all have what we want.” Draugen blew kisses at him, making Ivar fold his hands stare at him and grumble. Innara snickered too.

“What? I am so not a girl.” Innara started laughing. The next question, “Shall I teach you to play? Or not?”

“Sure I guess.” They both picked on play. The message that came on the screen was, “You do not deserve it.”

“Wow, that sounds a bit dark.” Innara felt a chill up his spine. Draugen looked infuriated now.

“What the fuck you mean I don’t deserve it you stupid machine!”

Everyone looked amused, Nemesis was a bit more concerned. _Does he always get angry over the silliest things?_ Though, he partly understood, the game sounded _mean_ if it was the word. Perhaps, for Tyrants, or anyone living in unfair situations, the game highlighted it more? Innara also looked a tad bit annoyed. Usually, he was one of the most jovial Tyrants, aside Slevin, so pissing him off was a feat. Had it hand it to the game.

“What do you mean game? I don’t deserve it?” Innara forced out a laugh. _Wow, that game is interesting,_ _it’s pissing off 053 — I mean Innara. Wow, it’s gonna be good. Slevin thought seeing Draugen scowl and Innara frown_.

Soon, an ominous music began. And a small creature, humanoid looking, though more like the Android bot, came in. Naia asked Draugen and Innara to stop playing, “Alright, everyone start playing.”

Nemesis smelled the laptop by instinct. It smelled of a cream, kiwi, tea and some other type of hand cream and something floral. It was the components which made Naia’s signature by scent. He breathed in again. So relaxing. He got his head out of it as he was also interested in playing this game. It is true maybe pissing of Draugen wasn’t a novelty but the various way this game had, with making him embarrassed made him wonder.

The question flashed on his screen: “Are you a man, or a woman?” he chose ‘man’, “No, you are a little girl.” Nemesis laughed a bit. Him, a little girl? Wonder who wrote this script. “Shall I teach you to play? Or not?” hmmm, what should he choose? Chose ‘not’ and immediately, as if with anger, restrained but palpable, the screen spat out at him, “You will Fail.” _Try me AI bitch_. Nemesis snickered.

Veles looked at Slevin, “You think what I am thinking?” he smiled at Slevin, most of the times he was smiling at Slevin, if not anyone else.

“Yeah, let’s do it.” Slevin smiled back at him, making Draugen subtly growl a bit, _Fucking scholar tits’ sucker_ , Draugen kept on looking at the game where dying could happen easily. Slevin looked at him and smirked, Draugen felt a bit flustered. _Why do you have talk to scholar tit sucker? Dammit, once I wish I was as smart as 089_.

When the screen came up for Veles and Slevin, they both chose ‘woman’ and got “No you are a little boy.” and they also chose the ‘no’ option. The world seemed filled with black and white and other colours, “Jump over the pit of barbs” the game said. “What barbs?” Nemesis asked aloud.

“It could be these red blocks.” Innara pointed out.

“Well, someone did not program their game right.” Draugen snorted.

“This avatar is interesting,” Freyr pointed out, “Looks like a cute, chubby cat.”

Seeing Freyr not brooding and complimenting something was rare, Slevin and Innara smiles, Veles smirked and Archer and Ivar smiled at him too. Nemesis had to admit, it was nice hearing the Hypnos Tyrant in a good mood.

“Hey there are now barbs. No longer red blocks.” Archer seemed to jump ahead before everyone else and now was pointing out to the design shift.

“Wait, does that mean, things gradually get illuminated in the world?” Ivar asked.

“We have to play to find out.” Nemesis commented. They all took his lead. It seemed everyone regarded him as one of the de facto leaders. Perhaps, as he was a designated mentor, teaching the annoying Draugen, and his age and the fact he seems calm helped.

Innara was looking at the barbs, “Wow, if the game told us they were not barbs, would we have known?” he seemed to be asking Ivar.

“Yeah, maybe not. They were just red blocks. I actually was wondering are they weird blood cylinders or something.”

“Do you think Kobayashi played this game?” Innara asks.

“So, you have been thinking of him.” Ivar snickered.

Innara blushed, “Oh shut up.”

* * *

“Hey guys. I been told to check if your rooms are clean.”

Ivar grumbled. “Yeah sure.”

“Sorry big bois. I know it is not always fair.” the security guard whistled, “Damn, you guys sure are clean.”

“In all honesty,” Archer blushed and looked at the handsome man, with beautiful wavy black-brown hair and lovely slate grey eyes, “053, 022 and our Tyrant R friend help us a lot. I suck at cleaning and so does 032.”

The Tyrant R in question did not look up even being addressed, he was reading a magazine, the security guard looked at the cover and was surprised to see the Tyrant R was reading a “Cosmopolitan” issue, “Oh, that’s…” he blinked, as he saw the stoic Tyrant R look at an article about sex and how the best sex this woman had was with this fit IT guy and then looked at a fashion page with women wearing bikinis, “Great to know you have such clean roommates. MY Flat sometimes looks like a ditch. Trust me we also get supervisions like bi-monthly and we do get pushup fines or something as well, we are told to clean so we don't get mould and stuff. Hell, we get fined if we forget to take out the garbage. The scientists and people on the upper floors are lucky. They do get janitors to help them out.”

“Yeah, 022 went to the cafeteria. We asked him to do a coffee run for us.” Ivar, who was still unnamed, looked at the security guard, “Hey, are you kinda new? I seen you sometimes in the hallways. You talked to 077 didn’t you? When you first transferred here?”

“Yeah man. That handsome hunk can talk to me anytime.” The security guard looked interested, Ivar smirked, though his stomach’s pit flared, _Everyone likes Slevin and he is good looking and intelligent, dammit, some people are just born lucky_ , “You don’t know. I was hoping to catch his attention. But there is that 089 guy right, I thought he was staring daggers at me. Maybe he is protective of your taller hunk, not to say he isn’t blessed with good lucks. Most people call him the walking science lab don’t they?Sometimes, I hear them call him Tyrant Wesker.” Ivar almost snorted, _Another one born lucky. Maybe, being a Tyrant isn’t right for me._ _I mean I may have gotten down perfect speed and strength for an Elite Tyrant such as myself but_ _I mean… He clenched his hands, I wanna do other things and hot humans liking Slevin, who now also got named by that sexy girl Naia, and 089, make it harder at times to just accept. I mean they are so popular with everyone and I am just...well, I am not. I don’t know what I want and at times all I wanna do is study history books in the library. Searching for a time where I could belong in. Anywhere but here, in the modern_.

“Yeah, 089 really have a way with scientists.” Ivar almost snorted, _Fucking bastard is also in an advanced English class. Wish I could join. I am working towards it. But I am nowhere near. Wagner told me to keep trying. Though Kensley told me to up my training scores. Fucking bitch of human, Kensley, always telling me to just train and do my basics. Like, I want nothing else. I am already acing and I think I even helped the guards with the Lickers. I think I even have an assignment out of facility coming up._ Slevin and 089 don’t have assignments. Well, he knew why they didn’t. They were showing so much so Gresham and Byron and other heads wanted to ‘preserve’ them a bit in the facility. In the hierarchy of being expendable, they rank the lowest.

“Hey, 032 right?” the security guard spoke, “Don’t we have a group assignment coming up? Like, outside the craters of Raccoon City. Some Hunter Gamma problems? That will be so cool. I am glad we are meeting up like this. And, not on the assignment grounds. Can you believe someone decided to farm Hunter Gammas outside of the monument to Raccoon City? Some sick fucks amirte?” Ivar knew the Raccoon City incident, like another city, was a big one in human city, which actually shed a lot of light of Umbrella. He knew Nemesis survived the incident though he should be good as dead.

“Hunter Gammas of those times, I read, are design flawed, cultivating them would be well, counterproductive. Do we have any intelligence on the ‘why’ they are being bred?”

“So, right to business, huh, 032?” the security guard smiled and winked, 032 wanted to look away, he had noticed how **beautiful** this soldier was; he could not ascertain what his race was, or rather, he seemed to be more than one, his eyes were big but also prettily curved on the sides, his hair was wavy but also silky, had a sheen he saw some Japanese scientists to have, been talking and was afraid his social nervousness would win, his hands were getting sweaty, good thing he wore combat gloves, “Well, I know I am usually in security detail here but I actually got ‘fined’ by the admins. Let’s say I broke my bed and they were not too happy about it and this wasn’t…” he ruffled his own hair, “The first time.” 032 almost went beet red, _Of course a beautiful human with lovers, Would he wanna trade places?_ “Well, my girlfriend left the facility altogether. I don’t think she is coming back anytime soon. Even if she did. And, my boyfriend, well, I was dating two people. Well, he changed flats. Yup. Like immediately moved out. We had one last romp but let’s say the big guy was getting a bit rough and so I slammed him hard on the bed and it broke. And, no he ain’t a Tyrant. Human Being. All cock and balls human and I should have smashed in his face. He was cheating on me as soon as ex girlfriend left. With some girl in the Ochre labs. I asked him about him and he continuously kept on lying. Oh well, now he is gone and I should get some new flatmates. But before that, for causing disturbance in the flats for three months straight (which I am not), I need to do some active field duty. Guess, they felt I got too comfortable.” The he continued, “Well, Hunter Gammas are blind, huge and are good for underground navigation. It seems whoever is involved is using them to scour the remnants of sewers. But they are still dangerous. So, need to be taken out.”

At this time, Innara came into the room, “Oh wow, our showers were so crowded today. I swear the communal showers can get rowdy — oh, I am sorry. I didn’t know we had company.”

“Don’t need to be sorry, cutie.” The security guard smiled so deep, Ivar felt a stab of jealousy, 053 was so perky and cute, so many human women and men liked him, though he was mostly gay, which was somewhat okay in their community, “And you are?”

“053. But you can me cutie if you want.” Innara winked back at him.

Despite being in the room and the first one to talk to the security guard, Ivar was feeling like he was the extra wheel, “Noted.” the guard laughed, “I am Celio, by the way, Celio Kobayashi.”

_What the...he didn’t introduce himself to me_. Ivar pouted, _Well, I didn’t ask. Should have. I mean, I just stupidly only asked him about the mission_. Though he could see his friend looking at this Celio with a lot of affection. _Must be great to be as cute and lively as 053_.

Ivar looked up and saw their silent Tyrant R room-mate look at Celio now, a bit more closely. _Wonder what he is about?_

The Tyrant R put the Cosmopolitan magazine inside his trench coat and was moving out, “I am going to the library. Anyone need anything?” Usually, he didn’t say where he was going. _Wonder if he is thinking Kobayashi does hook-ups? It dawned on Ivar and he looked a bit taken aback, Smooth moves asshole, can’t you see 053 likes him. No wonder we don’t talk to you much._

“We are cool R19.” Ivar stated.

“Sure.” He walked out.

_Creep_. Ivar thought.

Seeing Innara and Celio giving each other googly eyes made him say, “I guess I will make some tea. Who knows when 022 is coming back from the coffee run. Do you want some, Celio?”

“Sure.” Celio talked to him and smiled at Innara, who had picked up a book, “Why We Love? You know I read that when I was like in high school. Long time ago.”

“Really? Did you like it?”

“Well, I was reading it after my first break up.” They automatically sat down on Innara’s bed, “First time dating a guy. Coming out the closet. Was trying to figure shit out. Well, we broke up. Looks like he was experimenting. Didn’t l.ove me, ya know.” 053 knew, because he felt Vanessa had done the same thing to him, “I mean. I knew I also liked girls. So, I kinda clung to my best friend who is a girl. My Dad was not at first happy. See, he is Japanese and he kinda went against certain cultural norms of the time, marrying my Mom who is like Mexican-American. She did not know the language and well my Dad’s family did not like her much at first. It was xenophobia. She had darker skin and well, it was a novelty. In Japan, at the time, only Ganguro girls try to do tans and conservative people did not like it. Of course, it was more of my father’s extended family.” he explained, “I think his parents were worried about her living in Japan knowing no Japanese. Well, he moved to the US. Being an interracial couple was hard enough. My Mom’s mother, my Abuela, she wasn’t too happy at first knowing I was gay, bi as anything. Oh well.” Celio laughed, “Sorry, 053. You didn’t ask for my family history.”

“Actually,” he came close, raise his hand for a whisper, “It’s Innara. And, please.” he smiled, pulling away, “Tell me more.”

* * *

Naia could see everyone playing the game and Draugen screaming at his laptop and told to shut it by Veles. “What the fuck you mean I should jump into the pit of barbs!” Draugen yelled at the screen, “That means I will have to restart things game!”

“Hey, the route above was easier, they told me to take the lower path but I didn’t.” Ivar was playing, “And, it had less obstacles and was more strategic way of getting across but they called me an ‘Ugly Creature’ for doing that. I guess the AI gets mad of you don’t listen to them.”

“What the hell?” Freyr looked at the world becoming more unstable and pixelated, “The world breaks down if you don’t listen to the AI making it harder to navigate if you are not careful. Wow, such a bratty AI.”

“So, they are playing a game?”

Someone had come into the classroom and gave a small knock on the door, Nemesis tried not to crush Naia’s laptop, Slevin looked in some recognition so did Draugen, Veles raised a brow, Innara looked excited, Ivar looked intimidated by the good looks and Archer wanted to mouth ‘damn’, Freyr looked a bit taken aback. It was Leon Kennedy.

“Oh, hey Leon.” Naia smiled at him, making Nemesis snort, Veles frown and Slevin look a bit sad. The smile looked way too affectionate.

Innara got up from his desk and went and shook his hand, Leon out of instinct was going out the door, Tyrants charging at him usually meant violent, he was gonna take out a knife, when the hand holding threw him out a window of expectations, “Hi Leon. My name is Innara. It’s my new name. I am also called 053. Has anyone told you, you look so good! So handsome! I wanna eat your face!” Innara blushed, “Not in a cannibalistic way!” he blushed more, then quietly, “You are really, really cute.”

Leon looked at his hands in the hands of the Hypnos Tyrant, “Uh, Thank you.”

“Oh c’mon, dude.” Freyr laughed, people looked at him, he hardly did.

Leon smiled at Naia, “So, uh, just wanted to see your class.”

“Wanted to see the class or her?” Draugen pointed out, “You making goo-goo eyes.”

Nemesis wanted to punch Draugen. Veles rolled his eyes, “Draugen.” Slevin says with a tinge of embarrassment.

“I don’t wanna play this game.” Draugen folded his arms, “It’s difficult.” The game was rubbing him the wrong way and was not completely certain why. He felt it was Gresham’s voice in the AI’s words of mocking and telling him to do horrible things.

“Just because it’s difficult you wanna quit? What are you? A Licker or a Tyrant?” Nemesis challenged his pupil, Draugen’s eyes widened, “C’mon, you are a Tyrant, feel it out.”

“Okay. But Fuck you.” Draugen snapped and played the game again.

Nemesis also felt he was like Jill. There was a sense of helplessness and you couldn’t really overlook in the game. Not to mention, the narrative dialogue was part of the ‘inescapable text’ of the game. He followed the instructions of taking the harder lower path and was called ‘Good Girl.’ The tone itself was condescending, even after he did something, well his avatar did, something dangerous. It was as condescending when he reached the first checkpoint the narrator had said: “Touch the Statue and I will Forgive you.” Nemesis wondered why he needed ‘forgiveness’ in the first place? Or, his avatar did. It seemed pretty, **abusive**. Should he even strive for the forgiveness of such a voice who seemingly did not value him at all?

The more the person followed the instructions of the chaotic voice, the more objects came into focus, stopped being blobs and took shape, yet there was the eerie feeling it all came with a price. Any agency of the player of their own meant the world got pixelated and distorted. Veles seemed to be following most of the instructions. As if curious to see what would happen if he did. Thus his ‘world’ in the game remained ‘stable.’ Well, there was no satisfaction in following such instructions despite the game’s world manifesting and taking shape. It felt like one was negotiating freedom for a loose kind of security, easily susceptible to decay. Aside checkpoint statues, there were these weird larger statues, looking like modern art, touching one of them elicited a text. Slevin reached one. Nemesis reached the same. “Do I own your body? Or your mind?” The text said.

Slevin chose ‘body’: “Dance for me.”  
  
Nemesis chose ‘mind’: “Beg for me.”

“Like fuck I will dance for you!” Draugen roared.

“Hey big dude, language.” Leon talked to him, a bit surprised how he was yelling at a computer in the class.

“Oh I am sorry, last time I checked, Miss Nazari was the class teacher, you know the one with the nice set?” He gesticulated to his chest, mimicking mounds, shocking everyone, Nemesis facepalmed himself, “Not pretty boy hair brunette.”

Naia blushed, “Uh, Draugen, please don’t talk like that.” He gave her a thumbs up.

Leon looked at Naia and inadvertently at her chest, _So, the Tyrant noticed — okay, what the fuck Leon?_

“Also, Kennedy.” Leon looked at Draugen, _Hey, he knows my name?_ “I know I am big dude, like ask most peeps, I am a king-sized down there, but name-wise it’s Draugen.” Veles rolled his eyes hearing this, Slevin snickered and thought, _Well, for once, his claims are not wrong_.

“How do you know I am Kennedy?”

“Leon Kennedy. I know you, you are Mr. X’s Leon.”

Leon cringed at the statement, “I am not Mr. X’s Leon.”

“Well, a lot of Tyrants here, well not specifically this room, you know the facility?” Draugen moved his fingers indicating the presence, “Either wanna bone you or crush your bones. To death, preferably. So, your welcome for giving you my free cents of knowledge.”

_I am popular with_ … Leon looked shocked _, Tyrants? What the — why?!_ “So, uh, Naia.” he decided he would not think about this at all right now, “What game are you asking them to play?”

“ _Loved_ by Alex Ocias.”

“Sounds neat.”

Nemesis wanted to groan. For one of the first times in his life, he actually disliked being a Tyrant, Leon was a **looker**. There was no way of **denying** this. His hair was soft and he had these well maintained bangs. And, Naia was _looking_. He wanted Naia to look at him in this manner. With desire. Yes, Jill had...but, he wanted it from Naia. He wanted Naia’s gaze to burn him and he would happily immolate himself in it. He was feeling sad. Was there...a reason...Naia did not look at him in that manner? Was it because he was a Tyrant? She didn’t seem to care. Though, he didn’t really know. And, well, NE-T Type Tyrants were even sometimes called ‘train wrecks’ and he now, one of the first times in his life, wanted to look like Slevin or Veles, those guys look really handsome for Steel Tyrants. There was a soft rumble of sorrow. He really did want Naia to look at him with desire, with passion. He may have just met her but...she was someone **important** to him now.

“Bet he scores loads of pussy…”

Nemesis raised his eye at Draugen, who had leaned in to give him that information.

“What? He looks like he always fucks.” Draugen acted mock defensive. _Someone kill me_. Nemesis groaned.

Then he looked back at the game; well, at least he could finish this. Yet now, he was angry. So, he was being a bit hard on the buttons. One of them popped out a bit. Nemesis realised this and looked back in actual fear. _No, fuck. I can’t ruin this_. He slowly pushed it back in. Thankfully it was working. Nemesis was so relieved. He needed to calm down. Though the game now was reaching another point. Another text based statue he touched. The question asked:

“Soon we will meet. Are you excited? Or frightened?”

He punched in ‘excited’: “So am I.” the text came back. _I am gonna kill you AI_.

Draugen, for God knows what reason, pressed in ‘frightened.’: “Then it will be more enjoyable.” He actually gulped. “This AI is a sadist.”

“Don’t touch the statue.” The text told him, “Wait, What?” Slevin questioned, “But it’s a checkpoint.” Both he and Nemesis touched it, the answer spat back was, “Ugly Creature.” “Yikes.” Slevin replied.

Nemesis stopped for a while. He knew he was not easy to look at. The game made some of his discomforts known. Looking at Leon smiling at making small talk to Naia made him grip her computer harder, albeit with some restraint. Maybe, he was not as beautiful as Leon. But he was a Tyrant. Tyrants don’t back down from a challenge. He wouldn’t either. At least, Naia deserved to know a bit. Of how much he was coming to mean to her.

Veles had noticed Leon talking to Naia and he had such a displeasure in his eyes. He knew Kennedy would be a formidable opponent despite being a human. He crackled his fingers and thumbs. He did not mind at all. After all, dominating over a hero to show a sweet human his all was a possible future he was beginning to like.

Slevin had been trying to exchange the gaze he saw in Leon. It was a want he had known. Even seen in Draugen towards him. Leon also studied Naia, instinctively. Her face, her eyes, the way her hands move, her body, her curvaceous hips and generous breasts, her slender arms in the jumpsuit. Naia may have noticed. She had a faint blush. She also noticed his sculpted body, his nice thighs, good chest and powerful athletic limbs and body, not to mention, hair and softer eyes compared to his more grizzled expressions to which he had looked at them, even the surprise of being approached by 053...oh, right, Innara.

“Okay, this is hopeless.” Speaking of Innara, he looked distraught, “It’s telling ‘Do not Fail’ but like my avatar turns into glass, they are moving spike bombs, how can I do this in one run with limited abilities and cramped spaces? You are a horrible supervisor, AI!”

“It’s saying ‘How disappointing’, ‘Disgusting’ and ‘Ugly Creature’ as I fail.” Archer looked so confused, he had been shy and quiet but now he looked angry, “How rude and unfair.”

Veles seemed to have failed once, then twice, he tensed being called such rude names, seemingly resolved to NOT fail.

Draugen failed once. Then he breathed in deep. He failed a third time. Then also calculated. Freyr came to the same spot. Soon, they passed the obstacles. The Text read again: “Do NOT Fail.”

They jumped down on a big tube. Soon, the screen splashed out in white and Freyr, Veles and Draugen got the message: “I am so happy you are mine.”

“Well, fuck you. I don’t wanna be yours.” Draugen spat out. Freyr felt very uncomfortable. Veles looked blank

The question came again: “Are you a boy? Or a girl?”

Veles chose ‘girl’ to see what happens: “No, you are a woman.”

Freyr and Draugen chose ‘boy’: “No, you are a man.”

Soon, there it was like they were transported elsewhere and they all moved forward and touched a medallion like object.

“THE END.”

The game read. Freyr breathed out a sigh of relief. Draugen blinked, “What the hell just happened?”

The others failed and got a different set of messages.

“Why do you hate me?” They clicked on the hypertext on ‘hate.’

  
“I loved you.”

“Yeah, right.” Ivar snorted, “You didn’t love us. You controlling piece of shit.”

“Where will you go? Will you stay close to me?” The game asked. Archer chose ‘close’ out of shyness.

“Good. We can Begin Again.”

Everyone chose ‘go’

“I beg you to stay.” The game implored.

“Fuck you.” Innara actually cursed.

Hearing Innara curse was a rarity.

No matter staying ‘close’ or ‘go’ they were transported to a tube. The world around them was getting pixelated as an old fashioned TV static screen. They kept walking in the tube — as if some form of escape.

“THE END.”

“That was a trip.” Slevin commented.

Nemesis started laughing, everyone stared, “Calling it that is sure something.”

“Hey, can I play?” Leon interjected.

Some of the Tyrants, like Veles, Nemesis, Draugen, Freyr and Ivar, looked at him as an ‘interloper’ to their class. They liked it was **theirs** and felt chill with Naia. Slevin looked excited. It would be nice to know what Leon Kennedy thought.

“I, guess so…” Naia rubbed her head, everyone knew it would be weird for her to suddenly say ‘no’, “Uhm, Nemesis, can I have my laptop back?”

Nemesis, reluctantly, with a sigh, gave it back. He subtly clenched his right fist. _Well, I am gonna prove myself to you. I am gonna do everything...to…_

“Well, what did you think?” Naia asked.

“It was like Bingo the dog was abusing Violet the pug.” Freyr spoke. “I mean he was unfaithful but that was straight up messed up.”

“It was so infuriating stated.” Innara commented, “So unreasonable, domineering and so caustic!”

“Felt like someone shot a railgun in my mouth.” Nemesis commented.

“Didn’t Jill do that?” Draugen asked.

“Yeah, I revisited the memory. And it was awful the second time around too, smart ass.” Nemesis replied, making Slevin giggle.

“Yes, my ass is smart, to stay away from you.” Draugen’s comeback made Nemesis snort, Slevin and Leon laugh and look at each other, “And, my ass will make this Abusive AI Grass!”

“I felt like…” Archer who was shy was looking confused, “I didn’t know why they were being so weirdly mean.”

“I wanna put a railgun in them.” Ivar nodded at Nemesis, who nodded back.

“Actually, I am glad.” They all looked at Naia, even Leon, “Because you see, this IS ABUSE. Act oif Doing it. Just because someone says they love you or they seem to be nice they can change. The environment feels like that. If you listen to their whims, no matter how messed up, they show you a ‘clear’ picture of who they are. The more you suggest to them you have agency and want to do things differently, they misgender you, belittle you, gaslight you and then push you into a place of identity violation. It is not love.” Naia continued, “You see when you do listen, the voice then tries to make you accept a gender or pronoun or something and says they are so happy you are theirs and you get a weird medal. Ocias seems to also take the genre of gaming to show how abusers use love as a game, where one needs to win some perfunctory ‘medal’ that actually makes no sense.” She sighed sadly, “And, then they gaslight you if you do wanna leave saying, why you hate them, they loved you and want to stay never realising what they have done. One has to understand love to an extent or understand fairness or understand some sort of ‘right’ to realise this. It seemed, I will only presume, Ocias was critiquing aspects of game design, ludology, but also helping frame abuse and emotions via ludology. If we cannot adhere to nonsensical instructions in a game. Why should we do so with our lives? Violet the pug may be depressed because Bingo flirts with Maria, the beautiful husky. But, maybe, after a time she should leave. Then maybe Bingo may beg her to stay never knowing how unfaithful he was in the first place. But Loved by Ocias is brilliant because it takes elements from emotions, experience and game design to create an interplay within psychological frameworks. My students back in college have similar reactions to you guys. Some have more hard pressed ones. So, I decided to share it with you.” Then deeply, “I am very sorry if I hurt anyone. My intention is to teach. If any material offends you, please, you should always tell me.”

“I actually felt it was ‘bad’ for all the right reasons.” Archer replied, “I felt I was learning something.”

“Me Too!” Innara chirped.

Nemesis smiled warmly. Naia smiled back at him and Slevin who also smiled as warm as the sun.

Veles smirked and Ivar blew playful raspberries at Draugen who did it back. Freyr chuckled.

_Well, just have to prove..._ Nemesis looked at Naia who Leon was looking at and she looked at him, _I deserve you, don’t I? I am going to..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah yes, "Loved" by Alex Ocias. Will Nemesis get his feelings in check? What about Leon and Naia? IS Ivar the jealous type? What does Archer think about? Why does Freyr always brood? What will become of Nian Zhen and Innara and Innara and Celio Kobayashi? Stay Tuned for the answers in the upcoming chapters!
> 
> Please comment. THEY GIVE ME LIFE!!!! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH! *NOM NOM COMMENTS* MUAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA


	12. The Act of Doing (iii)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phew! Sorry for the late update! Things to unpack in this chapter! Hope you enjoyeth!

**The Act of Doing (iii)**

‘Sarah’, the name she had given herself, was busy looking at computational data at the Ochre labs. She was not too happy that her classmate and peer, Abel Crawford, had been selected at Tyrion labs and she was working on the next important one in the labs roaster. She knew it could be worse and she could be assigned in the smaller labs in Arrkoth but she was still annoyed about all if it. Ochre labs helped a lot of the assistive works surrounding Gerechtslinde, their ‘little’ tree, and she was gonna throw a fit if she had to make data patterns again so soon. She was so jealous because Abel had been working with Lickers. They had been there for around two weeks and all she had been doing was running probability data sets on Gerechtslinde ‘ovulation’ cycles. She hated to think of a weird-ass plant’s menstruation. Today, with fate’s cruel ironies, she too was on the cycle too. It was a relief though. She did not want to be pregnant. She had been fucking around with Abel ever since last year. Though, they weren’t always keen on using the world, ‘couple’, they were. In fact, she had to tell Abel, before the start of their work lives in Arrkoth, that they were girlfriend and boyfriend.

“But what about the Tyrant babes?”

‘Sarah’ had looked at him, “What do you mean?” she stressed the question, her brow raised, hands on her hips.

“I mean everyone knows that working in Arrkoth means…” he had to stop looking at Sarah so mad, she looked absolutely furious, so angry she was closer to crying due to the fury, “I...mean...I...you know. Tyrant bootyville.”

“So, the first thing you wanna do is go fuck a Tyrant?” Sarah was so angry, she was freely crying now, “So, what, Tyrant girls or guys? Aren’t most Tyrants boys?”

“You being homophobic.” he was joking but shut up immediately as Sarah started crying, “I mean I don’t mind boys. Does that bother you?”

“Your sexuality does not bother me! You are the _tyrant_! Fucking around with me and fucking me and acting it does not mean a thing!”

“Hey, Sarah, I did not mean that at all!”

“Yeah right!”

Well, he had to have make-up sex with her. But she always wondered. Now, that he was in a different lab and it had been over two weeks was he? Was he with a Tyrant? Was he cheating on her with one? He had been reluctant to share one of the couple’s apartments they had in the third to fifth floors. “But, we are a couple. Don’t you wanna stay with me, Abel?”  
  
“Sarah, we just got this job and I wanna focus on it. Don’t you?” Abel made a face in a way. Sarah was not happy. Though in the very first day in the line he had joked with him she had not known he would not be staying with her and that he would be so ‘into his work’ he would forget to have dinner with her and stuff. When he came over last night she threw a decorative vase at him and it had shattered and he was yelling and she was yelling and then they fell down to fuck; she crying and he moaning. Both whining in the deep heat of sex. She knew it was not right. Something about them was caustic. Yet, she had been dating Abel for like a year and they had some good times. She hadn’t had a good and long relationship like this since her childhood sweetheart, the first one and the guy she was supposed to get married with, broke things off with her to marry a cousin of hers. In hindsight, she should have known. She was studying in the field of bioengineering in a leading University and he was back home and working in their father’s repair shop, which was a family business he was supposed to inherit.

He had not even been keen on her making it. She had not understood why. When they had been younger, when they first shared a kiss in the playground, he had been so happy she liked ‘getting dirty’, ‘rolling in the mud’ and ‘not worried about her dress’ like the ‘other’ girls. They used to always get scraps and she had been a bit of a ‘tom-boy’ (that term becoming a bit obsolete) and he had always appreciated that about her. Well, even when they first had sex, their very first, at seventeen, he seemed to be so happy with each other. She had been happy they had waited — him a bit less — but, overall, good. She always loved he was so understanding. Her family being a bit — well, bit. She was happy she found who she had thought her ‘one true love.’

She had been a fool. She paid the price for dreaming sandcastles and princes and clever princesses. She was not bending over for him. Not playing into a fetish of ‘fuckable tom boy’ with him. When she got accepted he seemed happy. Though he had pressed her on marriage and settling in the town for a while. She had asked him what his long term plans were. He said he wanted to take it slow. She didn’t. She told him she wanted to study and apply herself.

“Is that a good idea? Like don’t you wanna settle down? Especially, after all the issues with your family? All the things that happened those years back?”  
  
“It had been those years.” She was a bit annoyed, “I can help the family name. I can be a good scientist.”  
  
“But you can be...a...I mean….”  
  
What he wanted to say was ‘a good wife.’ She had no problems being a wife. But the way he was saying it made her a bit sad. Well, the years in university, he seemed lacking in direction. Soon, grew distant and she raided her work wanted to ignore they had becoming distant. When she saw on Instagram he had married her cousin. She was speechless. She had cried so much. He had called her. Wanting to apologise.  
  
“I just don’t think you will happy just having a family and living out here.”

“Maybe not.” she was cold.

“Look, my parents, they told me your ‘blood’ ain’t right. I mean. They say your family isn’t great. And, well, I wanna stay in our home town. You seem to always be away from me.”

“Well, not my fault I went to uni and you stayed completely mediocre.”  
  
“Don’t be like that.”  
  
“Don’t get STDs fucking the village bicycle.”  
  
When her cousin tried to talk to her in a family pot luck she had started slapping, hitting, punching and scratching her, alongside pulling her hair until her parents and the girl’s came and separated them. “How could you just forget everything you bastard!” she threw her shoes at him, “We were supposed to be a couple!” she had broken down in tears and rage and started upturning a table and its chairs out of rage.

She had figured she was to date someone successful in her own field. Less intimidation. Less hassle. But she felt “stuck” with Abel. In a weird loop. Where he did not seem to be always engaged and she was okay for a long term relationship. Long term everything. Hell, even marriage. Abel seemed to be more interesting in having sex and having Tyrant sex.

Due to all of this, she had a hard time even looking at Tyrants, she couldn’t look them in the eye, she was developing a form of xenophobic distance from them, she saw Abel smiling at one the other day. A big Purple Lady Titanic named ‘Vanessa.’ She wore hot pink lipstick and was like someone who could be on the cover of Elle magazine or Victoria's Secret catalogue. She was already quite conscious about her figure. She had nice eyes and a deeper shade of blonde-brunette hair, and violet-grey eyes, her eyes were a very distinctive feature but she wanted brown or hazel or blue eyes because she did not like how they stood out. But the purple clothes on the Tyrant seemed so natural and appealing, unlike the purple in her eyes, which looked more like mutation or some gene placement gone wrong.

She got very jealous. A tyrant seemed more at home in a humanely flirty aspect than her. Everyone seemed to be better than her. Even a BOW. She had no idea what she was lacking or how she could contain it or remove it. Abel seemed to like the attention of the hulking female Steel Tyrant and then she brushed his fucking hair out of his face, his nice brown hair, and was laughing at one of his jokes . She immediately went to Abel and he looked pale.

“Hey Sarah…”  
  
“What are you doing?”  
  
“Lighten up honey.” Vanessa smiled, in a pretentious way.

“Go fuck your mom you cunt. Oh wait, you a bastard weapon, You have none. Now go be a perfect tool before I use you as a floor mop.”

“Sarah…” Abel looked really embarrassed.

Vanessa looked extremely unimpressed. She wasn’t going to take shit from a young woman who looked like a girl and was a C- in her books. So, she just smirked, and looked like she was swishing her black and white hair; it was a subterfuge, a ruse so good — as she kicked the girl leg, a slight nudge, that her falling face down on the ground. Shivering in pain, “Oh dear, are you okay, honey?”  
  
Abel looked confused.  
  
Sarah was so angry. She had tears in her eyes and looked at the Tyrant smiling and sticking out her tongue in utter defiance. Sarah felt humiliated. Some of the lab techs and scientists had started audibly laughing. It reminded her of the reunion with her cousin and childhood ‘sweetheart’ where some people had laughed at her predicament and her family lineage. Abel looked confused at what to do. He seemed unhappy at the situation. She couldn’t let this slide. She couldn’t! She wouldn’t!

Sarah got up with a scream and took a nearby clipboard and started thrashing Vanessa who looked confused rather than ‘unimpressed’ or anything else. “Hey, cut that out.” She said, actually intimidated but the mad snarls and yells this scientist of all people were giving. Human scientists were a breed she liked because of their calculative and calm natures? This was being blatantly pushed aside by this one girl screaming and trashing her, without a dent, with a clipboard.

Things got bad when Sarah started pulling Vanessa’s hair. It did not really hurt but it did tickle her nerves a bit and she snarled at the intrusion of personal space, “How dare you?!” she knocked down Sarah with a small push, “You never touch a Tyrant’s tentacles, head or hair without permission!” Vanessa felt Sarah had insulted her and she was irked to say the least.

Sarah was angry and got up and started pushing into her, “Stay away from my boyfriend!”  
  
“Okay, geez, there are other fish in the sea. But I think you never got the memo.” Vanessa looked disgusted. Some other people did too. Sarah was feeling publicly humiliated. And, it was partly Abel’s fault. He gave her cold shoulders. He did not always properly reply to her texts. He sometimes came over and sometimes didn’t. He had refused to share a couple’s apartment with her in the Facility. And, he was now blatantly flirting with a gorgeous Female Steel Tyrant, right in front of her. She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream. She felt so out of her loop. So, embarrassed. She had even started disliking Tyrants because Abel had wanted to flirt with them. She had even decided to take a name he had called her when they started university and had met in their third and final year when she had been so upset that her childhood ‘love’ had married her cousin.

She hated her family history and she hated how vulnerable and unhappy she had become as a person. And, in no way, had Abel helped. His so-called Casanova ways had begun to hurt her so badly. Yes, he was handsome, funny and thoughtful. Until he wasn’t. Until he was being immature and reckless. Until he was intentionally or unintentionally stomping on her heart.

“Hey Sarah…”  
  
Sarah began to cry and shake. She couldn’t take it. She had wanted to work in this facility. She had come for Abel but also for herself. Now, she was beginning to distrust herself as a scientist and also a person. Partly, due to motherfucking Abel.

“Why Abel? Why am I never enough for you.”  
  
Everyone got deathly quiet. Some saddened whispers and some looks of contempt, from all genders, at Abel Crawford who started nervously chuckling and looking extremely nervous, “Look Sarah.”

“Don’t you ever call me that again.” she snapped and sobbed, “Trusting you was one of the worst mistakes of my life.”

Abel looked shocked and actually sad, “No Sarah...I...I am sorry. I just —“  
  
She didn’t let him finish as she ran out of the labs crying.

That had been over two weeks ago. She would have been fired. Byron made this clear in a meeting after the incident: “You know. Your family name won’t save you.” she looked coldly furious and it scared her, “You can’t act like this especially with one of our finest Elite Tyrants. Abel Crawford has also been reprimanded. But you cannot act like that _Sybil Francine Spencer._ ” Byron spoke her real name out loud and she felt embarrassed. She knew by then she had already held funeral rites for the name Sarah.

Why had she kept the nickname Abel gave her? Because...Because she hated being called Sybil. It sounded too mysterious. And, being a Spencer and being mysterious were not good sighs. She had always used Fran or Francine as her name throughout her life. After her horrible heartbreak she had adopted the name Sarah, which to her was ‘common’, ‘amicable,’ ‘girl next door’ vibe and also ‘part of the world and not suspicious.’ She should have known she would lack the so-called traditional elements of being a ‘girl next door’ type as Yvonne Byron would lack the word ‘ugly.’ She was heartbroken even by this. The loss of a fantasy she felt could keep her safe.

“If it were up to me alone I would have transfer you in the smaller labs to study basic data sets and stool samples of Lickers.” Byron made her contempt known, Sybil struggled with it. She was used to hate being a Spencer but such a cold fury was scary, “But Wagner, Gresham and even Kensley has spoken that your skills would be a waste but mark my words. Another episode like this, you will be punished.” She seemed to enjoy the word ‘punish’ or was Francine imagining it? Albeit, she nodded at her superior and walked away feeling hot and cold at the same time.

At present, she hated these probability mating readings of Gerechtslinde. Gerechtslinde was more of a hermaphrodactyl tree but she was prominently ‘she.’ She seemed to use this gender even if she was a tree. Her ‘sperm’ came from unfallen fruit and usually her ‘children’ fucked her or rather an outlier who existed to just mate with her. Either the fruit in the tree shrivelled and became a spermatozoid sort of slimy creature then travelled down to her roots to ‘fuck’ her or one of her drones actually did the job. Some guys and girls actually made polls on which of their Ivy Zombies get lucky. Some of them had their favourite ‘studs’ too. She found it ludicrous but at times interesting as some of her colleagues actually knew who was very virile or who had the personality to come through. Usually after mating, not always, a Ivy Zombie may become weaker and even ‘obsolete’ and soon die. Or, die immediately. It seems the culminating existential glory for them was mating with their ‘Mother’ and soon for biodiversity and to cull incest they passed away. It seemed sad and tragic even to her. Some guys and girls found it romantic like a Romeo and Juliet situation but Juliet living on to become pregnant again by other dudes.

There was one outlier who did not listen to the grand Mother tree and even the gall to refuse mating with her. This made the tree so angry she rejected him easily. They called him Bulbs. She had been interested in Bulbs but he, well, it was a ‘he or a they’, maybe a bit non-binary, she wasn’t sure, he seemed to once hiss at her, look apologetic and run away. He was always running away. She always went to look for him, call him, no dice — he did not trust scientists especially ones calling out ‘prey.’ Yes, Byron treated him like shit. Once she tore of one of his vines and when he moaned and looked like he lost something important and wanted his vine back she slapped in the face with it. Shutting him up. Still, she had asked the famed Nian Zhen for help as she was making no progress by herself. It was funny, yet Bulbs had made her anchored in her reality here as a scientist as she had forgotten some of it thanks to her romantic life. It may not have helped Abel was the second person she had slept. Unsure of her sexuality and herself, scared of the jeers and all those people hating on her as she was Spencer, she kept to herself mostly.

Still, she needed to talk to Bulbs, know more about him. She found him more interesting than well, the mating data sets of Gerechstlinde, she was sure she could take a break and go to the Tyrion labs and see what was up. She had avoided a bit because of Abel. After the incident involving Vanessa, they had texted, their relationship tenuous and in one rare meeting she had allowed in her living space she had told him, “Abel, maybe this isn’t working out.”

“Sarah…”  
  
“Call me _Sybil_.”

He looked surprised, “Don’t you hate that name?”

“Don’t pretend to know me.”  
  
“Look, I am sorry. I was being flaky because...look, I don’t wanna settle down. You seem to be interested in the long run. I just wanted to live in the moment. And, I was afraid to say this as you always get mad. And, I am sorry with what happened with your last boyfriend and fiance I mean I am not him. I do care about you. I do love you. I just…”  
  
“It’s just not enough.” She sobbed a bit, “You just don’t wanna be in a committed relationship.”

“No. I do. I just want us to be a bit open at times. To new experiences.” Abel blushed, “Sorry. I know that is not for everyone.”  
  
“Fuck you.”  
  
“Sarah…”  
  
“Don’t fucking call me that.”

“Okay, Sybil, I am just. I am just sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I just wanted to slow things down.”  
  
She didn’t understand what had happened. She knew Abel was not a complete bastard he had genuinely cared for her when she was depressed and was almost becoming an alcohol after her ex got married. She thought this would define them. Clearly, it didn’t. She was still a kid. She had no idea and understanding of love. She felt incredibly bad it felt something was lost from her. Perhaps, it was romantic naivety? Or, romance in general. She was deeply hurt.

“Well, things are now slow. Slower than ever. Hope you are happy.”

“Don’t be like that babe.”  
  
“Don’t call me that either..” She folded her arms, her tears rubbed away, she was used to hiding her insecurities and vulnerabilities, the joys of being a Spencer, “ I think we don’t fully a relationship anymore.” it was still hard for her to break up with him, after all of this time, after all of this, she was just so upset yet she was finding it hard to let go of him, stopping to love, was hard, was brutal, was cancerous and not at all soft, it was a cruel and unusual punishment, “Look, we need to revaluate what we want. What we can do. I know this may not be hard for you —“  
  
“That’s not true.” Abel looked annoyed now, “Don’t assume that Sybil. I do love and care about you. I am really sorry how I have been. I just wanted to keep it slow and steady and…”

“Don’t tell me that. You just wanted me cause I was sad and I was _easy_.” she started crying, “You knew that and now I am not being easy anymore so I am not good enough anymore.”

“No Fran. That’s not true.” Abel looked genuinely heartbroken but he knew he had been that asshole.

“Please. Just leave me alone. Maybe it is over between us,” Sybil cried and when Abel went to comfort her she pushed him away.

Well, that had been some nights ago, now she got up and resolved to go and see Nian Zhen in the Tyrion Labs. After all, he was one of the most resourceful scientists and heads of the Facility. He rarely disappointed and compared to Gresham, Byron and Kensley aside Wagner seemed to be the only sane one. Everyone else seemed understandably and legitimately afraid especially if he was like spectre when he smiled at you. Byron’s lack of most emotion responses made people called her “Robot Rush” as she was beautiful but also like some Terminator programmed from the future. And, Kensley was called “Bondage Bitch” or “Hard Cock” because how she was a disciplinarian of a person. Only Wagner and Nian Zhen seemed to be the ‘normal’ ones.

When she got in she immediately spotted, as if by instinct, or by some weird magnetism, animal or feral, Abel. He was joking with someone and immediately fell quiet seeing her; he opened his mouth, towards her, as if he was saying something to her, then stopped himself. She looked away. Content in not looking at him. She was looking for Nian Zhen.

“Hey, you are Abel’s girlfriend, Sarah, right?”  
  
She looked at the young man and had recognised him from the first day of the facility. So, lucky him also worked in Tyrion. Was he Indian? She did not want to presume. The most favoured labs though in her Labs, Wagner and Kensley, had rule. So, it was also productive. She just didn’t like working around the Gerechtslinde and Tyrant neurologists who did quantitative data sets and made bets on who gets to fuck Gerechtslinde. Though the main stuff of Gerechtslinde happened in Tyrion under the supervision of Byron. The other data and stuff were collected, quantified and worked through in Ochre who worked as another unit. She was also interested in Lickers but Ochre did not specialise in Lickers. Tyrion did most of everything and then another lab was its unit for Licker studies, aptly named Pharyngealogy, and they have to work on the different colonies of Lickers Arrkoth had.

“Actually it’s Sybil. Sarah was just an adopted nickname. He gave me it and I liked it enough then.”

“Oh.” He looked at her, “I am Amrit, Amrit Sarkar. I think we saw each other the first day.” they shook hands, he had intelligent light brown eyes and nice hair, also a better build than Abel, “Nice to meet you, Sybil. Abel is over —“  
  
“Not here for him. Here for Nian Zhen.” She says it bluntly. Hating to be associated with Crawford even when she came into a lab. Though, she knew Amrit was being nice and not condescending.

“I…” he looked nervous, “I have some bad news. Nian Zhen is not here today. He is in the hospital wing.”

“What?!”

“Yeah, alcohol poisoning. Two of the custodians found him the morning with some of the other Techs who had also gone to ask him for some schedule updates. They quickly rushed him nor else he would have choked and drowned in his own...well, vomit.”

“That sounds terrible.” Though Bulbs was in her head she genuinely felt sickened hearing this about Nian Zhen, What is going on with him?

“Where did you grow up Kensley?”  
  
“You always ask me this, Gresham, it is getting old.”

“Is it? C’mon —“  
  
“Just keep quiet and tell me. Is Nian Zhen, still functional?”  
  
Sybil and Amrit heard them talk, and she wanted to approach them, “Well, yeah he is okay.” Gresham smiled, bright with less warmth, like a cold sun, “So, where you born in backwoods America?”  
  
The question threw her off, “What?”

“You know your husband came the other day and we chatted a bit. He said your parents were like Hippies? And, they actually lived in a commune?”

“Gresham” she threatened, “If you talk to that imbecile again without my consent, let’s just say you wouldn’t like me.”  
  
Gresham smiled, but he also raised his hands, believing the threat and knowing he shouldn’t crossed the lines, “Sure Dr. Kensley.”

“is it true?” Sybil approached them, “About Nian Zhen?”  
  
“What are you doing here Miss Spencer, aren’t you supposed to running tests on suitable probable mates of this junction for Gerechtslinde based on phermonal data sets?” Kensley looked down on her, annoyed.

“Yes,” Gresham made a crude chugging gesture with his hand that surprised all of them, “He got too into the battle. But he will live.” Gresham laughed, “Nothing new for our Noelle.”

“Oh, I am so sorry to hear.” Sybil looked sad, “I needed him too…”  
  
“To make another scene, like the one you did with our prized Elite, Vanessa?” Kensley brought it up, Amrit nervously coughed, Gresham just smiled at Kensley, “Maybe you should in more hours at your lab then move around.”  
  
Sybil just snapped, “That’s completely unfair Dr. Kensley, why don’t you stop trying to control me and mind your own damn business. My personal life has no bearing on my work nor are you supposed to comment on it so freely.”

Kensley looked taken aback then almost snarled at her, “Well,” Gresham laughed, “You kinda deserve that Kensley old girl.” he got a comeback in a way too to her threat.

Kensley glared at him, “Don’t call me that, Gresham.” then she narrowed her eyes, “I suggest you watch your mouth Miss Spencer.”

“I am here for Nian Zhen for —“ Sybil looked at Amrit, who along some others, had looked at her with admiration because “Hard Cock” was hard to talk back too, “BULBS!” she called out as she saw Bulbs walk around with Frieda Axton, who she had lunches with in the cafeteria. Who she was jealous of, that beautiful Black woman who seemed to attract every man or woman but had told her she was bisexual, though, may even be more lesbian, but didn’t seem to even blink at Vanessa trying to flirt with her. No one has easily attempted to flirt with her, well she had been with Abel, and ever since the thing with Vanessa people genuinely seemed weary or scared of her. The outbursts and all. She blushed. Frieda was beautiful, with her muscular type of arms, wide hips and waist, toned it seemed and good top heavy chest and green eyes. She looked also like she deserved to be a cover woman or some famous actress or athlete. Sybil had always hated how thin she was. Waifish, may have some meat if she ate better, which she didn’t. She had a tendency to want to starve herself due to anxiety. Now, here was Frieda with the outlier Ivy Zombie, who had hissed at her but looked at home with Frieda. _Seriously…?_

“Hello.” The plant zombie waved at her, “I am Askafroa now. Or, Aska. I was named by the one they call Naia and now this one, Frieda, had decided to somewhat adopt me.” Askafroa looked really happy and almost jumping with joy. Sybil wanted to die. Her heart was breaking. Her relationship was over and now seemingly her career prospects, _Wait, Naia…?_

She had heard the name before. One or two people talked about a thicc one they wanted to ‘tap,’ ‘plough’ and all of that. Others joked about how The Nemesis made Dustin piss himself protecting a woman he was being a royal bitch to. It was Naia the teacher. Naia, the fucking teacher. She was not a scientist but she worked in Tyrion because of the experimental program on helping Tyrants learn human society and selective empathy. She had once or twice saw Naia in the cafeteria. She was...a bit floored. She was this cute chubby girl who may not be everyone’s cup of tea but looked adorable and had such an amazing body in her own right if not traditionally considered ‘hot’ by Eurocentric standards like Yvonne Byron, the world was catching up and she was one of the people whose beauty was not undermined anymore. She was starting to dislike this Naia. After all, she was just a teacher and yet she snagged her project and she was getting attention. Apparently, even some Tyrants said, they would ‘like to score with that.’ Naia was tall enough and Tyrants like cute, chubby people too who were thick and wide enough to seemingly support them and also they liked fat in general as their population lacked much of it. Sybil was feeling humiliated. She was being outdone by everyone. Even a teacher. A teacher who was joked about as one of the most underqualified people in the Tyrion labs.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Frieda went towards Byron, “We need to tlk, Dr. Byron.” Byron had been coming up seeing Askafroa with a questioning look, “I have decided to treat Askafroa as a priority. He is intelligent enough and he responds pretty well. It doesn’t matter he was rejected by Gerechtslinde. I am pretty sure we can look over the whims of a moody tree. We need to know more about Aska and I think you should give him a chance.” Then with seriousness, “I also think you have breached ethical conducts and code by treated Askafroa in a negligible manner, to put it lightly To put it plainly: You abused him and your power over him. I don’t think the UN accords and the civil rights watch dedicated to BOWs and Tyrants would be pleased to know that a Blue Umbrella facility has been acting this way towards clearly a sentient being worthy of our respect. I think we should tread carefully.”

“You are a bit _new_ here aren’t you Axton to be giving _threats_.” Kensley came upon them, looking in Byron’s side, “What is wrong with the staff today?” Kensley seemed to be talking to Byron, who was not really looking at her, “First Spencer and now her.”  
  
“It’s _Dr_. Axton to you _Dr_. Kensley.” Frieda looked livid, she was not going to be pushed around by some senior scientists, “We are both scientists. I am not some young college passed tech and you would do so to remember that in the future.”

Kensley looked furious and even clenched her fists. Compared to Byron and Gresham, she was more expressive of annoyance and anger. Amrit looked visibly uncomfortable. It was hard not to be as such tensions this explicit were not always entertained in the cold, logical like labs or even if they were they had a m ore brief interval. Sybil did not like it either. Though she was happy Bulbs, or Aska, was saved she wished she also had a chance to work with him. But he had chosen a stupid teacher and the beautiful Axton. Not her.

Byron actually smiled surprising so many people, this did not look good, “I apologise Dr. Axton, you are correct. After much carefully done research, to which we have not been negligent or overlooked any crucial data, I can deem that Bulbs also knows as Askafroa, has been deemed sentient and a potential Outlier for research and due to such proceedings he will be under your care. You must make sure he gives adequate resuts nor else you may not be welcomed in Arrkoth anymore.”

She was pulling a Gresham. It was creepier on her. “Don’t worry Dr. Byron I am sure I can find many suitable things and new researches involving Askafroa.” A threat was a good incentive. Sybil felt more hapless. Frieda was taking away something she wanted to work with. She was feeling furious.

Askafroa seemed very happy as they were walking towards the exit, seemingly being reassigned, “Do you wanna keep living in the shed? You are now a priority and we have it made more comfortable.”  
  
“Yeah I liked the shed. It’s like. What humans say, an island? Connected to other places. I like it.” Askafroa hummed happily, the out loud, “Shall we meet the one called Naia.”

“Sorry Aska. Maybe later. Naia is, from what I know, teaching her class right now.”  
  
“Can I join class? I want to see classes. I heard of the classes.”  
  
“Well, it is for Tyrants specifically.” Frieda answered then grew thoughtful, You know what. Maybe you should.” Frieda smiled, “Let me go and ask Dr Gresham. I mean the classes are still new.”

Frieda walked confidently up to Gresham, who had his arms crossed and gave her a true warm smile, as if he liked her flare and ‘thanks for the amusement’ vibe, “Yes,” he answered, “Would be interesting. Can you tell me if vegetable sausage,” referring to Askafroa, “Learns anything useful and stuff. Would be great.” he was sipping on coffee. Anyone else would have noticed he had a new kettle as he had bashed the old one on Draugen.

Askafroa and Frieda walked along happily. Much to the internal anger of Sybil. She was starting to hate this Naia now. She would have access to someone who she had wanted a conversation with and did not seem interested in her.

She wanted to be enraged and cry.

She stormed off before Amrit could tell her something. He wondered why she was so sad as she had ignored Abel. While they were waiting around for the tension to dissipate someone gave a short summary of what had gone down with Vanessa, Abel and her.

“Oh Mr. Sarkar.”  
  
Amrit hesitantly looked as though he was looking at a phantasm.

Gresham smiled, “A word.”

* * *

  
“ _One of the funniest literary examples of how adversity heightens romance is Chekhov’s one-act play, The Bear._

_In this drama, an ill-tempered landowner, Grigory Stepanovich Smirnov, appears at the home of a young widow to collect money owed him by her dead husband. The woman refuses to pay a single kopek. She is in mourning, she explains, and curtly shouts at him, “I am in no mood to concern myself with monetary matters.” This sends Smirnov into a tirade against all women—calling them hypocrites, phonies, gossips, scandalmongers, haters, slanderers, liars, petty, fussy, ruthless, and illogical. “Brrrr!” he sputters, “I’m shaking with fury.” His rage triggers her anger and they begin to shout insults at each other. Soon he calls for a duel. Itching to put a hole in his head, the widow retrieves her dead husband’s pistols and they take their positions._

_But as their rancor builds, so does mutual respect—and attraction. Suddenly Smirnov exclaims, “Now this is what a woman is! This I understand! A real woman! This is not a whiner, this is not a wimp, this is a fireball, a rocket, this is gunpowder! A shame to have to kill her, though!” A moment later he declares undying love and asks her to be his wife. As her servants rush into the drawing room to defend their mistress with axes, rakes, and pitchforks, they stumble on the lovers—swept up in a mad embrace._ _This odd relationship between adversity and romantic ardor is seen in all the star-crossed lovers of the world’s great legends. Fueled by difficulties of one kind or another, they just love all the harder._ ”  
  
“Are you sure that’s not some plot of a porn?”

“Oh fuck off Draugen.” Ivar says with some contempt.

“Fuck you too.”

“Guys language.” Naia advises and she feels Leon’s eyes on her. The gaze is tender but hides certain meanings. They had been texting at times. They had met up for coffee. With Jill, sighing (in momentary defeat? Momentary resignation?) kisses Naia on the cheek, a lingering one, nodding to Leon, which made him get the meaning behind it and he sighed too. When they had coffee, Naia had been affectionate, though she seemed unsure. Now, he was seeing her in her element: A classroom. For someone, who seemed deceptively meek, she could command a tone that even had Draugen subconsciously listened to. It was friendly, firm and had aspects of instruction intermeshed with respect. He could see why people wanted to listen to her. She courted questions, personalities and seemed to attempt to gauge everyone’s different intelligence spectrum. It was interesting to see her work along with her pupils. Not necessarily a disciplinarian, but as someone who understood others _. Gresham got someone good for the job_ , Leon smiled. There was no doubt Naia was talented at what she did and skilled. He was experienced enough to know a good teacher when he saw one as this is what his job as part of the FBI entailed — adequate profiling in brief glimpses of time.

What he had like is Naia’s gaze towards him was not only one of appreciating how good looking he was. Yes, she appreciated it, but they seemed to want to talk more. Naia reminded him of life that was not only what once was but also what it could be. When he became an agent and when he could no longer necessarily be a police officer he had felt a form of loss. Sure, he should be happier as he was then in a more security-oriented agency. But he wasn’t. He wanted to be STARS later onwards and help the people not indulge the agencies’ weird policies about bio-weapons. Had one can told him, on the fateful year of 1998, that he would one day be sitting in a room, a classroom to be exact full of Tyrants, he would have looked at them as if they were insane. Yet, here he was now. Sitting in a room which housed Tyrants and their educational program. Late in the evening, waiting to see how the class goes, how it finishes, and perhaps — he looked at Naia — spend some time with an adorable person. The conversations and their technical date had made him interested in her. And, he was hoping she was interested in him too. Well, she did appreciate him. Would she — agree to just be around him. A part of him had thought of her when he had gotten home the other day. He was immersed in a fantasy of making love with her and he had imagined how passionate it could be. He was embarrassed but it had been a long time he had feel kindled by a woman in the same way.

It was the kindness and sharpness of her eyes and smile that spoke a lot to him. And, something told him — as he looked at the one they called Nemesis — that he may have seen the same thing. It was quite peculiar, to the say the least, for a Tyrant and he to share the same affections for a woman in almost similar ways. It made him wonder why. He was sure his affections did not come out of anything twisted or perverse. He was a bit unnerved by it and wondered what it could mean as he did not understand the correlation or even the concepts of attraction at work there. Was it same and similar to a human being? Or, was it something else? A human and Tyrant are bound to share similarities it seemed for humanoid DNA. Though he wondered what the differences could be.  
  
“Humans and Tyrants can love similarly but I suppose the reason pick up artist culture does not exist in Tyrants is because we know that having a pussy or cock paradise ultimately is a failure as we could not be responsible with our genetic belongings in order and we shamelessly fucked each living thing as we fuck things up on war.” The one Tyrant, Veles, Leon had a strange unknowable feeling from her, something in the obscure, but could not really figure out its origins, he would have missed, it flashes in his eyes as a way of saying 089 knew something and other people did not know it. He had to gauge him if he could. Something about him did not feel right and the crazy part was he did not know. “I think in our culture it is more how can be reasonable even when we are overflowing with lust. We have our own form of _cruising_ as you humans call. We call it _booking_ or _bookkeeping_. Well, there is a reason for the name.” Leon, even with his restraint, had to show interest, they had a ‘cruising’ culture? Naia looked interested too, which _interested_ Veles, “It isn’t only gay per say. “ He continued, “But it can be mostly gay as most Tyrants are what humans term as cis male or male coded. I mean we have the ‘traditional’ anatomy of a cis male and even if a Tyrant is NB they are mostly AMAB as you humans put. it. So, it is queer in the sense. Most female Tyrants or female coded Tyrants don’t easily cruise but they do too. Just harder to find a femme NB Tyrant or female Tyrant as they might easily get… _booked_.” He emphasised the last word showing some of its origin roots.

“What Nads?”  
“Draugen do you have to be this ignorant?” Ivar snorted.

“What? I know between ‘cis’ and ‘trans’ and even well you know NB I just know what the other words, MAB is?”

“AMAB, assigned male at birth.” Veles informed, “But you were assigned A-CUNT.”

Freyr burst out laughing along with Innara and Archer and Ivar. Slevin snickered despite himself. So, did Nemesis. For a moment, they all looked at Leon who was laughing with tears almost in his eyes. Naia also covered her mouth. Draugen did not know if he should be sour or if he should laugh and appreciate the quip in his expense.

In a moment of maturity, “That’s a good one.” He smiled making everyone shocked enough to smile back. Even Veles gave a nod of acknowledgment. “Well, it also could be called booking and stuff because most of our cruising happens in the library.” Draugen saw Leon raise a brow and Naia tilt her head as he said, “Hey, the library is a primary place for educational pleasures.” He grinned making Nemesis facepalm himself and everyone else groan. Leon chuckled a bit with Naia.

“As I was saying,” Veles coughed, “I think for us the adversity is also prominent. We are Tyrants after all. We can thrive in what humans deem as chaos. It is not the best thing but there can certainly be worser things. However, we like the obstacles needed to reach our ‘targets’ for romance. But, yes, we are not cats or dogs chasing after their tails. We may grow impatience and we may stop chasing. We need a chase to help define our romances in boxes we understand. But it does not need to be that always. I know this from seeing others and contrary to the impression I exude I am not a prude,” This seemed to be aimed at others but mostly Draugen, “I have had affairs. I just don’t like publicly chanting,” another aim at Draugen, “We simply do what we must do to secure a temporary romance.”

“When you say ‘temporary’,” Leon was speaking and Nemesis almost snorted, _Who asked him anyway?_ He knew he was acting jealous and he knew it was wrong as he had sex with Jill, but he couldn’t help it, a form of adversity breeding affection? He didn’t know but meeting Naia had been important to him, well, he couldn’t shade Leon, he had a good heart and judgment to like Naia, “Does that mean Tyrants don’t have long-term relationships?”

It interested Leon. Do they treat relationships like ‘prey’? He looked at Nemesis. Nemesis looked at him. _Should I be worried then on how he likes Naia? I mean prey means disposable or short-lived_. He did not like this assessment at all. Not one bit.

“No. We do not think of long-term relationships all the time as we are Tyrants who can die in active duty. I know you haven’t seen yet but we are a group who are lucky to be doing classes and coming back from our missions. But many have not made it. In the specialised English class, there had been one NE-a T Type by the name of Hop. Hop died almost a month before Naia came. Death is common to us so we don’t really hold funerals but we do some words. We don’t wish to act a person did not exist but it is normal to not speak of them much as for some it causes a lot of pain.” Slevin answers, as empathetically as his nature was, Leon wondered if he was more than a Tyrant, even more than human, there was a spark in him he recognised he had when he was younger, back in the 90s, he found himself becoming jealous of the Tyrant due to such a flame he possessed, a ‘positivity’ and ‘understanding’ not yet mired by the fatigue of loss and failure, or rather not fully quelled by it, “Hop was a nice guy. He was named ‘Hop’ because he was really great at scaling buildings thus good for reconnaissance missions even though he is not ‘slim’ as usual assassin classes. Hop was scaling a building when some bio-terrorists who somehow had studied his patterns, Dr Gresham think they had inside help, used a rocket launcher on him made with internal plutonium cases…” Slevin grew quiet, “He mutated into a blob, a jelly mix, and his parasite burned and inflamed…and…” not wanting to get into any more graphic details, “Well, let’s just say he died in a very horrible way. And, well, we don’t know how to reconcile living with someone all this time and then just well not seeing him anymore. Humans have an afterlife but are we BOWs also allowed into it?” It seemed to not be directed to anyone but everyone at the same time, “We don’t know what happens after death for us. In Christianity, we may even be treated as demons, demons belong to hell. But I knew Hop and he wasn’t a bad guy. I don’t want to think of him in some circle of hell so we don’t think at all.”

Leon was regretting asking such a question and thinking so mean minded towards Tyrant romantic behaviour just a few moments ago. This sounded as bad as him losing his team. Losing people. How did he feel know knowing Tyrants could feel the same? It felt surreal to him. _Should_ Tyrants be feeling this way? He had to accede then, he didn’t know everything about Tyrants as he thought he had. Well, even experts don’t know everything.

“Yeah well, Hop was our roommate that is why we got Tyrant R19 living with us now. After Hop died we had to get a new roommate and it turned out to be a weirdo quiet Tyrant R but I guess people are irreplaceable as you humans like to say.” Ivar had a note of contempt in his voice. Archer got quiet. Innara was so quiet not talking at all as opposed to him being energetic and nice. They all had befriended Hop. They all were awake the night a Tech (It had been Lewis) came up and told them, gravely, what had happened to Hop. He left as he the blank faces were started to scare him. After he left, Innara had broken down in tears as Archer consoled him. Ivar had told him to shut up and broke their fridge out of anger. They all knew death was inevitable. Yet, what happened to Hop was not death. It was a massacre.

A tear drop.

Nemesis noticed Naia had silently began to cry. _She is the only human I get to see who gets emotional and gets invested over the lives of BOWs and Tyrants this way. I don’t know what to say…I can only gaze at it and wonder what sort of cloth she was cut out of…_ Nemesis ruefully smiled. He admired this about Naia. Her ability to empathise with them. Treat them as people. It made her quite different from many humans.

“Yeah, Hop was my constant sparring partner for a while.” Draugen spoke and rubbed one of his tentacles, “We were getting really synced so when I found out he died I was at a loss for a while. Not everyone can sync very well with me in training. I mean I lost training buddies before. It is not a matter of ‘how’ but a matter of ‘when’ — so I was just quiet on it.” Then he looked around, “I guess it’s one reason to make Nemesis my mentor. I guess Gresham wanted consistent progress and not me losing partners by the tenfold.”

Draugen was attempting to lighten the mood, Ivar did not appreciate it, “Maybe, you should have died instead of Hop.” He blurted out, “It was supposed to be you in that mission anyways. I don’t know who or why it was changed in the last minute.” Ivar spat out of his hate. Some of the reasons, why he was of loath of Draugen came out. His friend was gone and remained, to him, the perennial asshole.

“Ivar!” Slevin gasped. Innara and Archer looked horrified, Freyr remained quiet and not following them with his eyes.

“Ivar. Keep those types of comments to yourself.” Even Veles seemed unimpressed.

“You are forgetting,” Nemesis began to speak, everyone looked, “That if Draugen died it may have killed me too. I would be deemed ‘useless’ aside data. Harvesting and terminated.” He was serious, “Additionally, if there is someone who leaked information about Hop then he would have died anyway soon — not ‘where’ but ‘when.’ You cannot honour your friendship or memory by wishing it had been someone else you know. After all, if I didn’t attack Jill another BOW would have. As I said, not ‘where’ but ‘when’, don’t act like a human about this.”

Leon was a bit dumfounded. He has never seen Tyrants act in anyway aside target elimination. He had, almost ten years ago, been even attacked in Eastern Europe with Sasha by Elite Tyrants like Ivar and Slevin and Veles. If you had told him then he would be talking to them about Tyrant sexuality, romance and loss in a fucking classroom he would have looked at you with disbelief and wonder if you got some syphilis type STD from the Plagas. Yet, here he was. Seeing in Ivar shades of his younger going, ‘It should have them and not _them_.’ Knowing that circle jerk logic, ultimately, did not make sense in the long run.

Naia had to intervene. She was all for conversations but even she looked uncomfortable when Ivar wished death on Draugen. She had to be the coordinator as she was trained to be, “Thank you Nemesis and all for that insightful discussion.” It was a sign to close, “I am sure that in a world and culture where death is imminent romance also adapts to it. In Chekhov’s play, the adaptation was also a proximity towards death and a stressful situation. So, can we say?” She gesticulated, “That Tyrant and human love and romance also entails what _kind_ of adaptation one has towards something and if that adaptation is compatible with the choice of the person you seek. You see the landlord in Chekhov’s play can be deemed ‘heartless’ to many because he does not understand someone passing is a bad time to ask for a widow for money. Maybe, some landlords would observe the required mourning period and then ask for the money. But this character did not and he was happy in a way to see the widow did not yield to his caprices and fancies but challenged him head on. Many love a person who can do this; in other ways, not take your bullshit.”

A quiet laughter. The class was calm again.

And just like that, Nemesis and Leon noticed, Naia had established control again. Leon felt she had a quiet power skilfully executed via her words. It may not seem obvious to many yet this power was something many actually crave for aggression can only lead you so far. He liked how Naia was able to speak and bring things together. To him, she was a good teacher. Someone who had power of presence and could talk eloquently and efficiently. It was a skill he admired in others as he felt he lacked some of it. Nemesis noted how Naia was good at reading nonverbal body language; perhaps a teacherly trait? He wouldn’t know. She was his first real experience with a teacher so he had no base to glean any knowledge. But he liked her soft cadence of a voice, which could go from high to low, like a thermodynamic equation.

“Well, tomorrow.” Naia spoke happily, “I wanted to show you guys a movie. So, like try to come on time so we can watch the movie.”

“What movie is it?”

“Not the porn one, Draugen.” Innara laughed and actually high fived with Freyr who seemed to be a bit more awake after that incident and snickered.

“Well, before you guys go. I thought I would, in spirt of the classroom topic today, put on a son.: It’s by Ruelle:

_Love, love changes everything  
Hands and faces, earth and sky  
Love, love changes everything  
How you live and how you'll die_

_Love, love changes everything  
Days are longer, words mean more  
Love, love changes everything  
Pain is deeper, than before_

_Love, will turn your world around  
And that world will last forever_

_Yes, love, love changes everything  
Brings you glory, brings you shame  
And nothing in this world will ever be the same_

_Off into the world we go  
Planning futures, shaping years  
Love bursts in and suddenly  
All our wisdom disappears_

_Love, makes fools of everyone  
And all the rules we make are broken_

_Yes, love, love changes everyone  
Love, love changes everyone  
Love, love changes everyone  
And love will never, never let you be the same_.”

_Brings you glory, Brings you shame,_ Nemesis was understanding this perfectly. _Wait, I am not…I mean I want to deserve her, but in love? Maybe, I need to take this a bit slow for both of us. After all, it’s also not fair on Jill. Who hasn’t sent me any messages or anything_. He had looked at his phone. Nada.

“Well, class dismissed. See you guys tomorrow for the movie.”

Leon smiled at Naia as she said her goodbyes to most people. Slevin smiled at Naia before he left. She felt an odd connection with him. Something not quite touchable yet but warm and fuzzy like cold chocolate milk on a hot day when she was kids with her cousin running around empty fields in the summer. Veles nodded, a mystery whose eyes talked a lot. Leonwent up to her, “Can I come to class tomorrow? Watch the movie with you?”

“Of course!” Naia says with excitement.

“I wanna spend some time with you.” His handsome face flushed, “But…Gresham invited me to dinner tonight and I can’t turn him down. After all, just talking to him was a mammoth feat.” They both giggled, “See you tomorrow.” He tilted his face flirtatiously and his eyes hooded a bit to show his appreciation. Naia blushed a bit.

As Leon left, Nemesis approached her, he had waited to see what would happen between them, he almost gripped the table and made a mark on it, anticipating a kiss between them, not knowing what to feel, yet when he left, he felt relieved but also confused, why hadn’t he kissed her? He should. He would. He went towards her, “Are you not spending time with him?” Despite his confusing jealousies and wanting to stay with Naia, he also accepted the fact, as Slevin talked about Hop, to look at things realistically, his hormone filled sonnet of lust and affection had something weaned off, he wanted Naia to be safe and happy, he had to ask, could he give that to her even as a semi-retired BOW, yes his looks mattered in the world outside because he definitely looked like a Tyrant prototype wih more scarring than Draugen; Leon was attractive, yes, attractiveness alone he also genuinely looked like to care for Naia, and Naia seemed to be thinking of it. It seemed odd, antithetical to his Tyrant nature, to chase, pursue, to even _toy_ with targets, to make them fold in a way — he found it hard to solely do this to Naia. Going against some aspects of his nature or rather holding _other_ aspects closer. The need for preservation and the need to learn and the need for the instinctual fire to burn brightly but not immolate him and mutate into something absurd.

_Naia is my friend, not my target, I want her to be happy. Yes, I want her but I also have to see what she wants. I can’t force this on her. I don’t want to dominate her with my strength at all. Not without her consent. I actually don’t mind being dominated by hers. This human, fragile strength, which can be more intoxicating in pheromones than mutations_. He meant that, seeing her smiles and her affirmation of him excited and stabilised him in ways he did not understand. 

“Leon has to meet with Gresham.” She explained, “I understand he is here to meet the facility staff and all.”

“I guess he found your class, _interesting_?”

“I hope so. What do you think? Did you have trouble with the materials.”

He coughed again, “Sorry…voice hurts…” he had been talking too much, forming better sentences in a matter of days, but it hurt his voice box like a bitch, “Liked…materials.”

“Okay, we don’t need to talk now. Wanna eat food with me?” Naia smiled at him.

“Sure. Thanks for…breakfast…” he knew he has to say something, she had given him his beloved espresso and he had given him warm cereal, she did not have to give a shit. But she did. And, the blanket he tried NOT to ruin but did.

“Hey, thanks for the company.” They started walking, “I am sorry I had to leave you but Gresham had a meeting with Leon and well, it did not go so well as Gresham seemed distracted with some papers and then apologised to him and say come over to dinner. That’s why Leon is tolerating dinner with man.”

“Insufferable Gresham.” He commented and Naia laughed in approval.

Nemesis looked they were going back to her apartment quarters. Late dinners were a thing in Arrkoth as most people had to reschedule their eating habits. Nemesis felt hungry. He had been severely hungry and had only taken an apple from Jill’s room. It satiated for a bit, hardly and he got frustrated during the class because he wanted to eat some meat and grind some bones. Who knew sex could be exhaustive? Well, he has lesser ideas on it as he was not super experienced. He was wondering if Jill would message him or write back to him. What if she didn’t? He felt sad. Was he then only there for a one-time sex thing? Then why did Jill have sex with him? He wasn’t her enemy anymore. So, why was she trying to treat him as a weird kind enemy she wanna fuck (EILF)? Jill was being confusing. He also hoped she didn’t think he had sucked horribly at sex, which was a fair assessment, yet, he wanted her to be _honest_ about it if he had. _Though she seemed like she was having a good time_.

Nemesis wondered what Naia wanted to do in her apartment. She got inside and asked, “Please sit.” He sat in the dinner table. The chairs seemed to be able to withstand his weight and he wondered if the facility had anticipated this. Tyrants in scientist bedrooms. _I guess so_. He knew some scientists did have sex with Tyrants so this was not so rare. She seemed to have come back to her apartment after he had left and had been cooking something. The smell was very nice. Though Tyrants could eat raw meats it was not always a necessity. After all, the environment entertained and determined their possibilities so shirking away from cooked foods would be antithetical to their efficiency.

Naia seemed to put black pepper on the food and then bring it to the table. There was lemongrass rice with bay leaves, black pepper lamb with some sort of sauce but also caramelised onions and a form of mint. Naia ate this food with her hands, mixed and match — “South Asian style.” Nemesis smiled. Humans around him usually used cutlery to eat so he did too but he also liked using his hands so he scooped the rice like her and the ate in dimmed lights and opened windows with a zephyr going on. It felt warm and safe. Nemesis never knew he would need the feeling. It never occurred to a BOW like himself.

As they were eating, he suddenly spoke, “I had sex with Jill Valentine today.” He looked down.

Naia almost choked on her food and Nemesis saw she reached the water in time; she looked wide eyed, deep coffee orbs looking at him, “Oh.” She felt conflicted. Jill was her friend. Nemesis was her friend. Jill had not told her anything. Yet, was it that only it? No. She had felt so close to Nemesis in a few days. It was like having a nice cool friend by her side. She was getting habituated by him but in a good way. A part of her felt strange. Her heart radiated a bit of sadness. _Why am I feeling like this?_ She also felt off because she did not know Jill would leap on him in this manner. Yet, she understood. Perhaps, it was a language _they_ could understand? Seemed like it. Was she feeling jealous? Yes. Nemesis has been becoming her close friend who she talked with and drank coffee with. What if that changed if he dated Jill? What if she couldn’t as much time with him anymore? That pained her in ways she found hard to describe.

“She hasn’t messaged me back. I don’t know she is thinking.” He ate slowly, “I am sorry. Maybe this was a bad thing to spring up.”

“No. No. I am glad you can share.” She meant it, “Do you want a relationship with her?”

“I don’t know Naia. She hasn’t said…anything.” He coughed again, voice hurting, he drank some water, it was warm so he was thankful, “You think I should text?”

“Hmmm, wait for a bit. If she says nothing by tomorrow. Go for it.” She advised him with caution, after all, Jill should say something. She felt annoyed at her. She shouldn’t be irresponsible. She needed to tell Nemesis what she wanted and how she felt.

Maybe, Nemesis moving forward, means, I should too? It amazed her a Tyrant was braver than her in matters of the heart but it made sense. Their lives seemed inevitably closer to death so delay seemed absurd and should be curtailed if possible, Maybe I should be brave like him…Leon… though a part of her was tugged in another way. What did she want?

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, Nems, I am sorry. “ she smiled at him.

They finished their meal and washed their hands. Naia seemed to have finished laundry. So, the blanket was clean. Nemesis was about to leave but she made some green tea with lemon and diluted rose petals. Tasty and refreshing. She put on Netflix. This was literally the platonic version of ‘Netflix and Chill.’ Nemesis and Naia were together watching a comedy show called _Bad Education_ and having laughs. Nemesis bellowed out his high timbre laughs, mixture with a roar and a guttural chemistry inimical to Tyrants, their power present simply in voice alone; one did not to court a battle to know. The teacher, Alfie Wickers, was an idiot but a loveable one and his connection with his class, Form K, was really interesting. They possessed a deep camaraderie, which was infectiously cute and soulful to watch.

Naia was at the edge of her bed and Nemesis on the floor with the greenish forest blanket. They both feel asleep with the TV on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that concludes 'The Act of Doing' trilogy of chapters. Phew awww Nemesis and Naia. Will Slevin be bold to speak his mind? Will Leon and Naia date? Why is Jill not texting Nemesis back? Who is Sybil Spencer? Why is Gresham looking at Amrit that way? Is Abel completely and asshole? Why is Kensley hiding things? What movie will they watch? Does Naia like Nemesis a bit as well? STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT CHAPTERS. 
> 
> P.S. If you are still reading the story please, please send me a comment. Want to know what ya guys think so far =]


	13. Moving Away From Loneliness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, it has been a while since I updated. I am happy I did update now. I been thinking and learning a lot more on what to do so let him hope I can make the story better and richer and not get so swept on to include everything in one go. I am always happy and grateful for the insight I have been given. 
> 
> Chapter Dedicated To The Tentacle Commander and Friends. Thanks guys for your insights, critiques and advice. Makes sense.

**Moving Away From Loneliness**

“ _Yet … what if there were another way to connect people and places, to exonerate the innocent and indicate somebody’s guilt? What if, aside from fingerprint and DNA evidence, there were other traces left on us that could corroborate one version of events over another? And what if it were so pervasive that, no matter how forensically aware a criminal was, they could never quite shake it off_?”

Freyr read this from Patricia Wiltshire’s book and wondered what traces he had in him, that he carried now with him that was not known to him, but was on his body as a _tell_. He sipped some tea and read this and was not paying the Tyrant R19 was beside him and doing something — possibly masturbating, under his bed. There was a suppressed grunt as he saw a porn video of two women having sex. For a moment, Freyr looked up and actually felt a tad bit disappointed. No one else in their shared room acting in this manner. He was getting bothered at times by his friends’ new roommate. The administration was busy building other types of accommodations for them. They had become more ‘habituated’ Tyrants so in a few days they could get better accommodations.

This is one of the first times he saw R19 do something like this though. He was not going into the library either for a pick me up? Was something up? Freyr decided not to at all think about this. He was more interested in reading what the forensic scientist had to say. He was happy reading this book. He may even read one of his math books and look at the numbers. He was most happy when he was either doing classes like math or reading history and books on forensics. So, he was reading this and he was deciding to look at some math dissertation works later on. R19 came again and again. He was cumming a lot. It was somewhat distracting. But Tyrants did have a higher stamina. They could at times bypass refractory periods but it would still lead to ‘sucky’ sex if they came too fast _simultaneously_ too soon. Still, he decided not to bother with this as this was not his personal issue.

Ivar came in from a training session. He had been doing more work with Innara and Kobayashi because they had a mission soon. He came in and looked disturbed and disgusting. “What is that weird smell?” Of course, he and Freyr knew what is was. Instead of giving him a greeting, he was now eyeing R19 and then spoke coldly, “R19, do you need to do that, right now? And even if you are, could you like open a window or something?” Then he realised the window would be covered with cum so he immediately said, “You know what? I am gonna do it.” Though the distaste was apparent. Ivar hated this R19 because to him something felt wrong about him. This was somewhat new as well. R19 hardly masturbated in public, especially if Freyr came to visit them. He hardly did anything aside read porn and fashion magazines. R19 also had the habit to stay out of their room more or less, which for Ivar, made it easier to tolerate him. Now, was one of those times when he was in the room. And, he happened to be publicly masturbating without a care. This guy has all levels on wrong on him, Ivar snorted and thought, but he wasn’t going to waste his time on him. He was happy Freyr was here so they could talk, “Are you enjoying the book?” Freyr was on his bed and so scooted to give the Elite Tyrant the time sit next to him. They both consciously ignored R19 who was switching on another F/F video and was so engrossed in it so ignoring him and the low noises from his laptop was easier to do.

“Yeah thanks for the recommendation.” Freyr told him, “So, how was training?”

“I messed up something during the training. I was supposed to use an anti-tank rocket launder with higher weapon’s grade. Instead, I use a standard issue so a particular wall in the training wall did not close down properly. It moved in a bad way making one of my teammates almost get hit.” Ivar looked embarrassed by this strategic failing, “Kensley came and slapped me saying I was a waste of good money. Told me I wanted to get into advanced classes but I am shit for brains and can’t even do basic drills.”

“Yeah, Kensley should suck her own dick.” Freyr snorted, “She is a regular asshole. I don’t even think she likes Tyrants. Or, whatever. I can stand Byron more than I can stand her as she is so rude and obnoxious. It is quite stupid.” He rubbed his shoulder, “Don’t worry. I know you will do great later. I can feel it.” Freyr was looking at him with respect and admiration. Ivar nodded. “So.” Freyr started a bit later, “Have you talked to Kobayashi again?”

In the two weeks that they had met, Ivar was getting a crush on Celio Kobayashi. There was a problem though. It seemed Innara also liked Kobayashi a bit. Though Innara had been so focused on Nian Zhen, he thought it would be okay to pursue the human soldier, with the beautiful hair and warm eyes. The very first day he had met him he had wanted his attention on him. May have teased Innara but could admit the pull he, himself, felt for this beautiful-lashes guy. His eyes were so dark, like rich earthy coal and warm like the earth under a moonlit night, the reflections seemed so, his body was muscular, yet slender too, he had a tapered waist and it accentuated his glorious limbs perfectly. Also, he had such an amicable and easier to work with personality so every training seemed more interesting with this beautiful human around. Ivar had liked human men and women before. He had once watched Byron getting coffee and had stared at her traditionally beautiful breasts, not too large or too small, and her _succulent_ thighs.

Physical appearances could be a hit or miss with Tyrants more so than humans as they value also strength of body and character in their sexual/romantic partners or people they admired. For a second though, he could understand the human fascination with breasts, yes, their shape could be interesting and the way they moved behind clothes could be interested and exhilarating. Tyrants tended to love humans for pheromones and also faces. Human faces had a lot of variety seemingly more so than Tyrants. Also, fat was something Tyrants lacked so fat in humans was appealing. Even with a slim woman like Byron whose thighs had some nice fat it could arouse. Byron had a nice clean scent, a bit like a hospital but something about it also spelled ‘aching need’ — it was like something soiled your clean bedsheets. At times, she produced this smell and some Tyrants, despite her being a bit cold and distant, would want her. It was quite appealing. She also smelled of soft cream and something like dry earth and potted plants. A nice combination of scents. Ivar knew he may not succeed with Byron. She was known to be cold and very distant from Tyrants and other humans. Many said she only seemed to get along with Helen. She hardly had friends. Sometimes, it seemed she was happy by herself and whatever fascinations she had. Could become creepy for some.

“I almost hit Celio. With my accidental rocket launcher test as the wall would have collapsed on him.” Ivar looked completely humiliated, “I mean Celio was being really nice and told me not to worry about it. The slap by Kensley was just the icing on that cake.”

“Hey if he told you it’s okay I am sure he means it. I observed him and from what you and Innara…” he added the last sentence carefully, “Tells me. He seems like a pretty chill human being. Well, sometimes, we can use those types.”

“But how can I be happy I essentially was going to drop a wall on the guy…” he blushed a bit, “Am starting to like? Don’t you see how stupid and dangerous that is? If I killed him or wounded him by mistake, well Innara would never have forgiven me for a start and I would never have forgiven me. Do you understand this? I think Kensley did the right thing slapping me. What I did was highly irresponsible and stupid. I could have gotten my potential teammate killed. Basic Tyrant rule: Gotta watch out for teammates.”

“I would love to get slapped by Kensley.”

They both looked at R19 in the throes of another orgasm. The situation was so peculiar that they both stared at him in a manner suggesting high unease (Freyr) to very high annoyance (Ivar). “We aren’t really talking to you R19…” he says this with a look of vehemence as they saw him cum again and Ivar could not stop himself from looking disgusted. Freyr looked away and did not wish to get involved with R19. He was not his roommate and the better he talked less and stay away as he got this eerie vibe from R19 at times. Something, he couldn’t trust per say. Something, he felt…almost like a pheromone lingering: something off and stale but also very pungent somewhere else. Freyr wondered if he had been reading too many books on scent or was he losing it but if R19 made his roommates unhappy he just made him, weary and tense. Wonder why.

“Well, all I am saying, Kensley’s ‘frost bite’ of a personality can be appealing.” He seemed to stop masturbating and look at them. Freyr noted in disgust his soaked sheets. Cum-soaked and there was that smell of rubbed out sperm now in the air. Ivar decided to not to notice.

“And?”

“Oh, nothing. Kensley slaps sounds nice.” He replied to Ivar and then just came for one final time and seemed passed out in his own cum stained sheets.

Freyr coughed in a way to dissipate tension and Ivar just shrugged, “Can’t wait for these new accommodations. I would love to stay away from this weirdo of a Tyrant R.”

* * *

“It seemed like a trip to me. I was actually kinda embarrassed.”   
  


“We don’t have to do it again.”

“No — I wanna. Very much. I liked it. It was very good. You may be new at this but…” she suggestively licked her lips, and he watched, “You are so willingly to _please_ and _learn_ and like. I liked it. I felt in control. Didn’t you?”

“I guess so. I don’t mind losing feeling for a few minutes. I mean.” He sighed, as if exhausted, “I been mostly aware of things and it can get tiring. Aware of my existence, aware I can die at any moment, aware I may not be in peak condition anymore. So, I didn’t mind losing the feelings for a while you know. It makes me happy to be _involved_ but also — I hope I am explaining it right and not in some creepy manner. I mean. It’s just. I don’t wish to think at all. I don’t want to think much or pursue much. I want to feel something which is not pain and I want to melt without the fear of death.”

“You put it so poetically.” She says this, half-teasing yet mostly serious, she comes up to him and holds him, intimately, “We should probably take it slow? Right?” she seems to ask him, he had picked her up a bit, to make her close to his face as they rubbed noses.

“I am the last person to talk about this. I don’t know what to say or do you know. But Jill. I enjoy my time with you.” He meant this, “I have thought of you a lot. At first, there was anger. You were my mission and I failed. But, then there was admiration and how you resisted and overcame. Now, I think I like you very much. I think we get each other in a way perhaps no one will get us. You know?”

“Nemesis. You spoke of it so well.” Jill couldn’t help by kissing him. Of course, kissing Nemesis meant more of a tongue-lock, which sufficed more than anything. It was funny. She and Nemesis seemed to want to ‘focus’ on Naia as a ‘rivalry’ as they had understood each other before as a rivalry. As oppositions. Now, it was quite clear. This was just them kidding themselves. They were here and Naia and no one else really mattered. They had survived Raccoon City and in it they understood each other better than most.

Nemesis kissed her too. It was nice kissing. He understood now why people around him seemed to enjoy kissing and hugging. There was something in it; the warmth, the patience, the comfort of a body close to you, the affections and the feelings of love it could convey. This is where language and sounds seem to fail. Even the beautiful, seductive elixir of pheromones. There was only some things touch could accomplish and this was one of them.

“Why didn’t you pick up? I had to wait one whole day for you know. I was so worried. Hayden said I tore approximately three bundle of ECG sheets.” Nemesis explained. The comment made Jill begin to laugh and for a moment Nemesis gave a wearisome and annoyed look.

“Sorry, Sorry.” She kissed him again but he grunted a bit annoyed so she kissed him again, “It’s just that is quite the image.” He smiled at her, she rubbed noses, “I…we were enemies and then I slept with you. It happened so fast. I was worried I made a mistake. But I know, it wasn’t fully a mistake.”

They were in her bedroom and Nemesis was happy he had called her again. He was also happy she did wish to talk to him face to face. He nuzzled her back affectionately and he was at peace knowing he and Jill felt the same way. “What do we do now?”

Jill gave him a look. It was all he needed.

They became a cluster of limbs, tongues, tentacles and hair. Sighs and bodies grinded into each other. All the power used in battle once was now used in making love. A symphony of bones, tendons, tentacular curls, muscles, febrile hairs, appendages and cartilage — all needed in the orchestra of making love. The lips and the teeth for the one lipless still had a soft skin around his maw and a slender tongue, sinuous and potent, like another mechanism for pleasure as he lacked the benefit of lips. He licked and sucked in a way only a NE-T could with a mixture of teeth and tongue rolling where lips were absent. He growled and snarled as Jill mewled loving his thickness inside her, commanding to be harder and faster, and he obeyed wanting to please this siren of all his dreams and realities. He affectionately touched her face and licked her cheek. He wanted Jill to be spent, to proclaim defeat and surrender to the orgasmic throes of every little thing, to have a gut-wrenching climax and she did, howling with him, appropriate to serenade along with a Tyrant’s roar, a nice accompaniment to his fervour. For he, was a machinery of much strength and power so for a human she did well for him in her sounds of pleasure if she could not bellow like him she could still make a timbre sweetened as his comrade.

As he lay with her, he was happy his compass had rooted on a North he could follow. Sure, Naia had been nice and kind to him. Yet, he did not know her. He did not know what he could have with her and he did not know the future. He enjoyed her company and her scent. Yet, his fondness of her, for the timbering, could be misplaced? After all, he was lonely, wasn’t he? Doomed to be a failure for a time and Naia had come and had treated him with respect and as a person. So, they were friends. Yet, here he had something concrete with Jill in the making. He was more than content with this. He would pursue this and seeing her she was pursuing it too.

He caressed Jill’s body in pleasure and she did the same. They looked at each other. His white eye against her blue ones. They smiled and kissed again. Soon, he was spooning her and held her protectively in his arms. She settled in and relaxed into him. They both breathed in and were going to sleep.

This was good.

* * *

It had been two weeks since the last class had happened. Movie night had been cancelled. Gresham had told her this was an inevitability she had to get used to. The Tyrants had assignments and they were shipped off to other facilities or parts of the world. They had to resume classes after they came back, cooled down and rested for they could cause too severe strain on Tyrants beyond a point or else mutations may occur or worse wear and tear on their cells. This seemed completely understandable. After all, Tyrant health and wellbeing was another thing the Facility had to cater to — even if the facility looked at them as weapons, well, weapons needed to be maintained. Though not everyone in the facility looked at them as weapons so one good sign was many treated Tyrants as individuals in their own right if many other treated them as useful objects.

Naia was having coffee. Espresso. And, she was missing Nemesis. After the night, they had fallen asleep watching Netflix, he had waited a day and soon Jill called him and now — well, they were a couple. She was a bit jealous as Nemesis had begun as her friend and she missed time with him. Yet, she was also happy Nemesis was spending time with Jill. It was like he had moved in with her. Lewis had joked with Hayden around her, a night she went and saw he wasn’t in his usual room, with the observation theatre and bio-medical support, “He upgraded to a real room. Like Anita tier here of Hayden.”

“Oh, shut up, Lewis.” Hayden looked at him with a look he would clobber him.

“Oh.” She could only say as what else could she say? She talked to them a bit about shows on Netflix and started walking back to her room. She was a bit jealous. It was nice when Nemesis had been around and she could watch movies or something. However, she was indeed pleased he had a life outside of all of _this_. The BOW sorts of things. She had talked to Jill and Jill seemed to flirt with her less too. Perhaps, it was just she was a new person and Jill was just wanting to break the ice. And, she seemed to need a friend more. Jill showed signs of someone who had forgotten the ability to make friends. Naia noticed this when they went for coffee. The spells when Jill just drank and looked at an article in her phone. Only to realise, she was not alone, apologise — then sit quietly sipping the coffee. She would apologise again. Naia felt terrible. It seemed Jill’s life had not been easy on her at all. Small talk was hard to come by when you have faced too much hardness for small to seem vacant — a miniaturising effect. They have had coffee twice since she began dating Nemesis. Without Nemesis. As he had been doing weapons mods and training. Naia hadn’t seen Nemesis for two weeks. She hadn’t messaged him for she wanted him to enjoy his time with Jill.

Naia was not an idiot. She was not aware. There were times she had seen Nemesis stare at her. If he avoided her now, she was a bit miffed, yet, wouldn’t she do the same? If there had been an attraction, he needed to spend time with Jill, whom, he did have many concrete emotions for. Additionally, she had noticed Slevin look at her and at times Veles. There was this feeling in her. Her professionalism and her need to care for others. She knew she had power. Like actual power in Arrkoth Facility. She did not wish to abuse it and she did not know if the Tyrants were just fancying a new face or not. She wasn’t and independent contractor so she didn’t think it would be appropriate to suddenly start a dalliance with a Tyrant who was in her class. Especially, making Nemesis do anything, he was so vulnerable, and she felt she shouldn’t make him do anything he would regret later. Did she have an attraction for Nemesis? They seemed to have been developing a nice rapport and camaraderie, only now it was on hiatus. She respected the break. It may have been something they both needed. Besides, he may have just had a fleeting something for her. After all, he was with Jill now, so there was so fear of her hurting him while he was vulnerable. She did find Tyrants attractive and she felt, she could belong with them as they seemed at ease with each other. Yet, as a teacher, she would not make such a move, without ample thought and how it would affect them and her career. She was here to help and not exacerbate existing problems like Tyrant fetishists or ‘iron bangers’ did (a slang for human Tyrant fetishists). If something happened well, it was the future not now.

There was another person she hadn’t heard of in two weeks. It was Leon Kennedy. She wondered what happened to him, and, was wondering if he forgot all about her. She felt a bit miserable by this. Didn’t they have an attraction? She was sure they felt _something_.

She felt a bit embarrassed but she went near a balcony on one of the floors. Twilight was settling in. Soon dusk and the evening would follow. In the colours of purples, reds, pinks, blues and violets with yellows, she felt like weeping. She felt very alone. Even if solitude was something she favoured one could become weary of even one’s favoured things at times. She wanted to be like Nemesis and find someone. It had been long and at times the stings of loneliness hurt a lot more — as if deep lacerations not closing with ease and taunting her with their deep, angry cuts and smears of blood. Was she fated to be solitary? Like some figment in a painting? A pariah among the will-of-wisps howling along and glowing erratically from the rest? She was fatigued by her company. For usually, in the last two weeks, she had done nothing yet study books, plan possible subsequent lessons and wonder how she would help the delay and what the students, if memory serves, would remember, when classes were in session again. She had to make them watch the film, no doubt, it was a media she felt in her gut would be highly recommended. Media was important conveyer of the world and the human world. Building up the Anthropocene in some digital celluloid planet of blacks, whites, colours and a cadence of light encased amongst a perspective. One could say they agree and disagree. How polemical media could be.

And, if Tyrants did not care, if they felt something was ostensibly human and not even a Tyrant’s glance could be relegated for it. It made the class more interesting. After all, Tyrants had the rights to reject anything they do not find necessary and pleasing. As a teacher, she may have the right to document such rejections for posterity. It made the interactions so valuable and she loved the potentiality of them.

“Hey there stranger.”

She first thought she was imagining the voice. Only to see Leon next to her. “How have you been?” he asks this, taking a swig of alcohol. She noticed he seemed a bit dishevelled though he did not smell drunk. She did not reply to him. She did not want to. She looked out at the wide expanse of fields. The clouds getting tinted grey and purple. A cool wind came in. A Zephyr. Summer had settled in. Soon, fruits would ripen and the air would have the musk of them and she would feel content. As content as she could feel. Maybe even happy. Yes, happiness was not beyond reach and the seasons, not constant, having their own coordination, from cold to heat, made her happy.

“You are angry with me. Women.” He says this but immediately catches her look and looks apologetic, “Sorry. That was wrong of me to say.”

“What do you want, Leon?”

“Yeah, I kinda deserve that.” He put away his flask.

“No. Aside being…well…I don’t wanna talk to you it’s…” she played with the railing, stone, very thick, reinforced with hard steel, to withstand the weight of BOWs and Tyrants, such as her nimble fingers tracing them or gripping them would mean nothing, amount to nothing yet fingerprints on the coming evening, “What do you want? You been gone and you haven’t replied to my messages. Well, granted I didn’t leave many.” She was looking a bit mad, she wanted to scowl a bit more, but she had become used to suppressing her emotions, after all, when her best friend said what they did may have been a mistake, she just acted like nothing happened, it followed her to this day, this shutting-off, she could not always deal, so sue her, “You didn’t reply to them. I guess you were ghosting me. If you wanna be polite.” She says this with bitterness in her voice, “You don’t have to do that. We can pretend we don’t know each other. I mean do we really know other, to begin with? So, like. Whatever. Take care, Leon.”

“Hey, wait a minute…” he actually held her and like Ada all those years ago she flinched his arm off, “Look, I am sorry. I know I was wrong. I…” he actually looked down and defeated, “I am so not used to dating someone…I feel a connection with. And, who…” Leon was blurting it out, “I mean.”

“Say it. Fat and a bit fumbly?” She wanted to be sarcastic but he genuinely looked unaware of this.

“No, not entirely. I usually have gone out with girls who look like they into fancy restaurants and well, you know. We were hook ups. I met them in bars or in clubs and it never exceeded more than two months. After Raccoon City, joining the FBI, I have never been a relationship guy. I wanted it but…so many things happened…” he looked really sad and Naia felt legitimately upset too, this seemed very difficult for Leon, “So, when I met you, you seemed chatty and nice. I was liking you and I didn’t wanna…fuck it up for make it too temporary. I am here for a whilel there is no mission. I wanna try — but I am also scared.” He explained as he saw she had opened her mouth to speak, “I am scared of how to go about things. You can’t just…I mean…” Leon was usually such a slick talker, now he was a loss for words, he was able to also thwart an opponent or enemy with witty comebacks and banter, “It’s just.” He struggled, “I am legitimately scared there is something _real_ here. I don’t know how to handle it.” This was the truth, “I have an off and on relationship…” he continued, after some moments, where they each surveyed the other, Naia seemed caring yet otherwise quiet, her usual smiles muted, not appropriate for now, “With Ada Wong. You may have heard of her name. She is a corporate spy. An expert of espionage and well you know getting valuable information. We met when I was a rookie in Raccoon City and we, though on opposite sides of the law, hit it off. There was always something between her and me. But…” he looked sad, “It always seemed to end in me waking up to an empty bed, room or apartment and she moving on. Never ready. I am now close to my 40s. How long can I keep on going like that?”

Naia wondered as well. There was seemingly no way to sustain a relationship in this manner. Leon seemed always to await answers or a commitment and it never happened. He was quite vulnerable now. His body language, stooped down, hunched for seeming shame and melancholy; she wanted to embrace him, yet an embrace has to wait, he could not happen so quickly, even though she sympathised and empathised, her gut told her to falter less, he still had a responsibility to her if he was serious, didn’t he? Something told her, Jill would be proud of her now, standing her ground and being more assertive. Her new friend had commented she was at times too soft with others when she should be more firm in what she wanted. Jill wasn’t wrong at all. She hit the nail and it went through the wood. Jill got to things because she did not tarry. Hell, she even was dating Nemesis now, a former enemy, one who tarries could not accomplish a feat. Even if she had reservations, she had no active duty to get him back. Nemesis was Arrkoth’s responsibility and she was independent of the facility. Whatever they did, did not cross any rules and regulations. Matter of fact, even if she was employed by Arrkoth, it wouldn’t. Though fraternising was somewhat discouraged in general contexts it was an open secret it was not fully forbidden. People live so close together would be bound to have attractions with one another. This is the way it worked. Or, they would barter bodies, the unhealthy and exploitative commerce. Arrkoth attempted to minimise this as much as possible though it could still be done. Who knows what some Tyrant or human were thinking? She would not follow the arrogance of omniscience and said she did.

“I was thinking about all of these things. I saw your messages.” He spoke, his gaze averse, then looking at her, “But, in all honesty, I didn’t know what to write back. I needed to calm down. So, I decided. I wanna make this work. I wanna try something real and I am no longer afraid or gonna half-ass it.” Naia wanted to smile though she was still pissed at him for somewhat ghosting her so she folded her arms, “Though.” He gave a weak smile, “You have every right to be upset.”

“’Upset’ is putting it _mildly_ you know.” She says this, stern gaze, somewhat pouty face; he found her adorable but he repressed the feeling to go and kiss her. For, he knew in the gaze she could bite and this danger lurking excited him. She was not all lamb. He preferred it. “I mean you could have answered. Said you were busy or something. You were being a jerk.”

“Can I make it up to you?” his wittiness coming back, he was elated, only to see her pout more, “Please.”

“Lemme think on it.”

“Is that a ‘yes’.”

“No. It’s a ‘maybe’ at best.”

He actually could not resist anymore. He went and held her in his arms but she pushed at his chest. He liked the feeling of their chests together. He did not always look at top heavy women but she seemed to make it work. He also liked the freckles on her face. She was liking his closeness too. His chest was so toned and his hips were so exquisite. She was now not admiring him as a handsome stranger or an art piece but with attraction. Granted, she could say a person looked outwardly beautiful to her. Yet, she always had needed more. With Leon, it was how they could talk so openly with each other. She could _listen_ to him and he in turn willing to _listen_ to her. It was not always possible to find someone like this.

“I wanna say ‘let go’ but this is some soap opera or like those old movies.” She started laughing a bit. Leon looked and liked the cadence of her laugh and he grinned and chuckled. She slowly kissed his nose, surprising him but he was really warmed by his gesture, “You idiot.” She called him, he rejoiced, for it had warmth, then sadness, “I was worried you left without telling me anything. You were going to block me eventually. Like, I did not matter. Or, something has happened to you. Please, don’t do this. If you think you need to leave. Leave. But like say goodbye at least.” She was looking down, they were around the same height as she was tall and he felt sad hearing this.

“I would never do that, Naia.” Leon nuzzled her face, “I am so sorry. I did not mean to make you feel this way.”

“And, yet you did.” Half-chiding and half-teasing; he gave her a look and closed his eyes and chuckled, “But —”

“I can’t wait…” he starts as he rubs noses with her, they look each other intently, there is a blush on Naia’s nose and the freckles in her face lit up with the redness of her cheeks. He too has a slight tint. A twilight on their skin, “To make it up to you.” He did mean it. There was a sense of responsibility here, which was not tied to some job. And, he could have _fun_ and it was important if he did have fun. With someone who wanted to have fun with him. And, they could make commitments. His life was getting back into order and hopefully Naia liked his presence in her life too. It was nice to be there for a change with someone who seemed to want him around aside a good time.

Naia was excited. Leon seemed to be dedicated in this way. She was happier now at least she knew an _answer_ from him. Even if it had been a rejection, she would hurt a while and hoped they could succeed on a respectful friendship. Of course, he and she had chosen each other. It was nice to be chosen and to choose. Those were pleasures one would love to have and if one didn’t have them they may feel they were essentially missing something. They hold each other longer. Soon, Leon peered in. The stars were coming out slightly as they kissed: half-innocent and half-passionate. She shivered. She hadn’t been kissed or kissed anyone in such a long time. Her body quivered a bit. He smirked and she wanted to give him a chastising look, yet, he smirked as it was the only natural thing to do. “It’s been a while.”

“Yeah.” He groaned a bit urgently as if he lost some of his composure; as if her vulnerability ignited his, “For me too. Thanks for…like…not taking it as strange.”

“That would be hypocrisy.”

He chuckled, “Maybe. But thanks.” He nuzzled noses, “It is easy to forget we have the same issues you know. I realise this all the time with myself and other issues. I remember Dr. Rebecca Chambers once pointing out that Chris Redfield and I, well, we got all sorts of common. Well, I still think he is more of a golden boy than me but she wasn’t wrong. We both have learned the hard way of how life can get hard. And, it changed us a lot more significantly than we could have ever really imagined. I mean. He was already a STARS member and I was a rookie. I think we both faced a shock we never really came out from…” he looked at the stars, “You know.” He spoke after a while, feeling Naia in his arms, settling him, they were both the same height as she was tall, they pressed cheeks most favourably, “I took to drinking to escape the nightmares and so on and so forth. At the time, as I was experiencing, it was a nightmare but I pushed it away. I pushed it down for a long time. To the point, I didn’t wish to face it. Until, I had to. Every place I was deployed, it was BOWs, bio-terrorism, Raccoon City but in another model. Same Shit, Different Day. As they said. I couldn’t control all my emotions. I guess it was PTSD but it was well, it was not an honour to have that. To be mentally sick meant you _failed_ in some way. I didn’t wanna fail. I just wanted to _survive_. Heh.” He chuckled and Naia felt his tear on her cheek as if she was crying for him, she grew still but listened with awareness and warmth, “I thought survival was more important than living. I thought life was over.” He choked on a sob. Leon didn’t know why but holding Naia like this and their earlier rapport made her feel he could trust her, “Fuck,. In some ways, this job, makes you a zombie. What is really the difference between T and me now? It also wants to merely survive and make new hosts. G wants to just breed. It’s like they think for them it’s like either gestate or die. Ride or die in some weird way. Should survival be the only thing for me?”

“You know.” She looked at him now, letting him cry, “You asking that question couldn’t mean you know survival alone is not satisfactory to you. And, not to sound like some cheap ass shrink, but acknowledging something. Even many times over.” She saw he was going to say something, “Always helps. Maybe you have thought and acknowledged this before. Have you ever spoke it out loud? To someone else?”

Leon had to silently shake his head. “Not always. Maybe in a slight way but I always have an issue expressing this. What if I failed as a _man_? As a _person_? By not being able to sustain myself when these things happen. Back in 2017, Chris Redfield told me that I should basically just suck it up when he saw me drinking and feeling out of sorts. I mean, he did have a point. The A virus was still relatively new and they needed me.”

Naia scoffed, she was a bit angry at Chris, “And, is he in the best possible way?” she genuinely asked him, didn’t Jill say something about dating this guy and well seeing he was easily judgmental and had a hard time accepting her complex relationship with BOWs, Nemesis and Wesker? Even before she was dating Nemesis she felt like he was shaming her for being attracted to the Tyrant. Never realising her attraction came also from a place of abandonment and shared history. He did not also seem pleased she liked Carlos for to him he had been _kind_ and _smart_ but also a mercenary hired by Umbrella. So, Carlos must have some sort of shady history. By how Jill talked about Chris and reading the BSAA golden boy’s records he seemed to view the world in some really black and white terms. Was it a coping mechanism? A way to justify petty jealousies and hide guilt? She would not be surprised. Jill had grown tired of his bullshit.

“Well, he doesn’t always seem right.” He had talked to Claire about her brother and it seemed losing partners, Africa and many other things had made him a sort of anervous wreck. Last he heard, Chris took some downtime. “I mean…yeah, maybe he is better than hiding it than me.”

“Exactly. I think I like you don’t hide it.” She actually took his flask and emptied it out the balcony. He didn’t tell her to stop, his mouth was slightly open, but he watched her, “I figured the flask is important for you.” Leon chuckled again.

“Yeah, it’s been with me, for a long time. Like a second skin.” Leon also chuckled to himself for that comment, “You think it’d be more tactical.” They shared a small laugh. She could see his loneliness. Radiating from those beautiful blue eyes. Which lacked a certain colour now; his heaviness was seeping in a bit.

“Come on. Let’s get inside. I will spend the night at your place.” Naia says this and instantly Leon gets alarmed.

“Oh…uh…” it seems he is nervous.

“Don’t be nervous.” She smiles at him, “We don’t have to do anything. I just want to stay with you.” She means it, she does not want him to stay alone. Leon looks at her with a warmth. The colour returning to his eyes. He took her hand and they started walking the corridors.

For a moment, they were revealing in each other silence, there were not many staff around. Peak hours had ended for moving, some corridors had scientists working but many of those people were working inside of their offices or their apartments now. Or, even the libraries. Research kept on going and labs never really closed. Nor did the cafeteria fully close either. They had a roaster for the night staff. Scientists and tech, even working Tyrants, obviously got hungry and the Facility had to cater to their needs to make things run smoothly. They even provided treats for the Ivy Zombies as they were a workforce who helped in moving heavy equipment and materials around with the Tyrants. Helped to maintain Guardians and such. They passed by a smaller break room and saw an Ivy Zombie eating crackers with a human scientist. They had more of a hive mind, aside Askafroa, yet, they had some independent functions.

“Those BOWs, they do creep me out at times.” Leon wondered how the scientists were so cool around them. He had seen similar strains of these beings, their predecessors back he was newly twenty, back in Raccoon City. Plant 42 zombified some of the scientists and they seriously look like Frankenstein fucked a plant in some ritualistic orgy. Though these Ivy Zombies did not look like T-virus infected victims or Plant 42’s insane out of growth and infestation thing. They actually looked more _humanoid_ , _meaty_ and more, for the lack of the better, Leon had to admit, _sophisticated_. They also seem to have any hostility or need to implant and ‘breed’ with any of the humans. Sure, there could be vaccinations, yet their prerogative did not seem to dictate as such. He looked at the tree in the middle and realised she was no Plant 42 (as they referred to her as a ‘she’). She was more _advanced_ and _sophisticated_ and her brood knew the humans and other BOWs were around to help their mother. And, they responded well to people being nice to them. Fair enough exchange. Still, this was a setting, which he was not at all easily used to. It made him a bit nervous. To distract himself, he asked, “So, how are the classes going? I couldn’t join you later. Any of them give you any issues? I been AWOL too. Some Tyrants looked at me funny and I was like,” he raised his hands, “I have no interest being _prey_ or a _fucktoy_ so I just well tried to avoid them. This NE-T by the name of Shivanker kept on following me. When I asked him what he wanted, he said, and I quote, ‘Can I suck your dick and take a picture of it?’ I was so shocked I just ran away. I mean after flipping him out.”

“There haven’t been any classes.”

“Why not?”

“Well, the guys have been busy. Ivar is training with a mission with Innara, Draugen went away to Eastern Europe for a mission, he is also making up for a mistake he did last time. Well, he said the guy wanted him to apologise but he kicked him in a way, which made the president laugh so he is good. He got handsy with someone but still there was an infestation around and he offered to stay longer to make sure civilians are safe. Also, Draugen’s team are testing Z14 Lickers on the field.” She was explaining, “They are Lickers who have adapted a sort of echo language that allows them to ‘see’ better and also make do something like produce a sort of ‘pollen’ or something. Wait.” Naia was remembering, “Like, they have certain different physiology than regular Lickers and they have adapted to a night-time environment and can produce chemicals which are bio-luminescent. The feral Lickers are also nocturnal but they seem to have become infected a strain of the Animality virus; which increases their strength during night, due to hormones secreted at the time. Team are working on it. Draugen is one of the only Tyrant deployed. Slevin is supposed to join him shortly. Well, they said they will tell me later, I am personnel and unless specified, they don’t have to censor anything from anyone. Researchers usually get to know some things and since Arrkoth doesn’t let people leave for long distances without some restrictions their secrets seemingly stay safe. They want researchers to build a life here.”

“Well, what about those with families and children?” Leon asked the practical question, “People stay away from their spouses too long and even their kids they may lose their minds.”

“Arrkoth is actually working on it.” She looked at him.

“Oh, you mean those buildings and why I wasn’t around to take the pass?” Leon seemed to know of this.

“Yes, there have been smaller towns here from before. But Blue Umbrella had started to amalgamate them. There was a small town here already called Dalvik. It was named as many people who lived here were once from Iceland. Well, Dalvik is now one of the largest towns and a satellite to Arrkoth. It is the primary fisheries here. Most people in Dalvik fish from this large lake made larger by human intervention. They also farm fishes in smaller ponds and so some families live here. Blue Umbrella and Arrkoth has existed in some form here since 2004 when Umbrella was going down. Many of their first research centres are in Dalvik. Some have been transformed into old files cabinets as some Umbrella research were already there since 1980s. And some of the buildings have been made into veterinarian offices. Then there is Azogues where many of the farmers live and tend to the cattle and well Tyrants work on the fields. Apparently, Arrkoth has a special border guard and they —”

“Dress like medieval type Knights. Yeah I saw some of those tall Elite Tyrants wearing silver armour.” Leon spoke, “Baffled me but it seems cool I guess.”

“They are called the Silver Spades. Frieda, you know Dr. Axton, she told me. The NE-Ts are the Red Hearts and Hypnos are the Blue Diamonds with the T-103s being Yellow Clubs. They form this knights’ sort of group who work primarily as the border guards of Arrkoth and protect the towns. They also well help in planting crop and farming. The last town, filled with orchards and trees was a smaller village and is now part of the Trinity of Arrkoth South Carolina cities. It’s Kasol. It’s actually a South Asian name and many of the people who lived there once came from South Asia and it was there as a vineyard and quiet place. Now, well, Arrkoth is expanding it. Azogues has the High School and the small schools for children is in Dalvik. Some of the scientists live in those towns. Most obviously live within the Facility and could be unmarried or without any children or spouse but many with children move out of the Facility and come to the Facility to work. Though not all. I heard Gresham’s university age cousin lives there. Though she is apparently older and just decided to not go in any university. They are priming to make a building in a year and have a Arrkoth funded university. I asked if it would be integrated and Dr Kensley laughed at me as no; parents would be happy sending their students to a place with Tyrants. I think they wish to make it a research centre for students in STEM.”

“Nice to see Blue Umbrella spreads out thicker than Umbrella.” He was partly impressed and partly worried, “I mean. Look at what Umbrella did with Raccoon City.”

“Yeah. But well. I just hope they have some good in them. There are more at risk now. More people, both humans and Tyrants.” Naia looked concerned, “Of course people can be worried but with the global economy the way it is it is harder for many places to now have a well, an umbrella,” they exchanged looks, “You know a major player helping them out. Though Arrkoth has some policies in which they support local things. They also use their own tech as much as possible. They don’t allow most multinationals in and yes, they are a multinational themselves but even if they did the tariffs would be higher. Some coffee chains have been trying to get in, Lucas told me. But Arrkoth board of directors don’t feel it is good for the Facility and its trinity of towns as of yet so they have successfully barred till now. They can possibly set up shop a bit closer but most of the local businesses are more important here. Arrkoth thinks they can make their own new chains successfully later on so there is some capitalist interest and not all altruism. It is working so far. Though can it be sustained? We are yet to see.”

“Yeah makes sense.”

“There were some other issues.”

“What kind?”

“Marketing.” Naia informed.

“Marketing?”

“Yeah, well, some of the well-known joints wanted to use Tyrants and other BOWs as their ‘mascots’ to promote their products. This has made another discourse available. Not only by Arrkoth researchers but other independent researchers on why the mascotisation of Tyrants or any living being becomes like another form of corporate slavery. Well, some people hate that Tyrants, who have many rights, live in Arrkoth. The anti-Arrkoth circles are not as widely prevalent because the Tyrants need to be ‘store’ somewhere so speciests and racists or those with prejudices are okay with Arrkoth being a BOW warehouse. But this does not mean people are okay with BOWs. There has been other words used to describe BOWs — BOVs, BOCs and BOBs. Bio-Organic Variants, Bio-Organic Citizens, Bio-Organic Beings. Of course, BOCs has this other discourse. Some people are okay with Tyrants and BOWs having US property rights and not US Citizenship rights. Or even EU citizenship rights. There has been a debate on Nemesis as well I heard. He was shipped from Europe and has become naturalised but he can apparently have EU rights as well. Some people enjoy this as his mixed heritage means they can work with him or even claim he is their ‘property’ but then there are those who want him back; extradited so they could basically euthanise him and get it over with or just keep him in stasis. Some want him to have no EU rights altogether. See, some people would then claim EU nations have done an act of bio-terrorism even if Umbrella is based on US and is a multinational, Nemesis was specifically sent to Raccoon City and well to target STARS, US soil SWAT team. For now, the fires have been cooled by legal team as Nemesis was non-active for twenty years so there are many other statutes to look over. It is one of the things new legal students and associates are all studying and looking into.”

“Are you always researching on these things?” Leon looked partly impressed and partly puzzled, _Wonder when, if even ‘when’, she has ‘free’ times_ , he wanted to laugh, _Maybe she would have some time more when she spends time with me. Now, I know I will never get bored_. He meant this because he found her quite impressive in how she understood these nuances. He had also educated himself in many structural aspects of BOWs. He had to. He needed to them as any other cop or investigator would. When recruited by FBI he did get trained again. Most people did not give him slack. He was to shaped to be one of the best agents. He was now releasing his life was quite an epitomy of loneliness since he was 20. Now, as he was slowy migrating towards his 40s, he wondered what it meant. What it would mean further as he got older? He did not wish to contemplate too much now. After all, she had threw his drink and he much preferred the company of a woman he liked.

“I have to you know.” She explained, “My job and well, I can’t erase things, can I? I mean when I was unemployed even like one and a half month ago, I did only some readings on Tyrants and that too was quite well small. I never thought I would be teaching Tyrants. I was fired fast and because I think Blue Umbrella has to make sure secrecy and some other things are maintained nor else you know they may just announce their laundries to the world. They do have a media team working but I also heard they need to hire more people. General public needs to talk with Arrkoth Facility. There has been suspicions not only because of Umbrella but also because of the fact Arrkoth, in some way or form like companies like Google, have existed since 1990s and early 2004 developed a small colony of buildings here in the town of Azogues. There has been journalists even some freelance investigative journalists who had, with the understandable irritation of Arrkoth heads and executives, interviewed some of the citizens. Of course, by law, Arrkoth now has the right to turn the journalists away. Yes, free speech is obviously important, but so is staying off one’s property as Gresham stated. Section 16-11-600 states that if you interfere with a person’s property after posting notice to keep away you can have legal ramifications. Section 16-11-590 also states you cannot destroy sea oats or Venus fly traps. Some of the farming tenants and homeowners do litter their gardens with mutated Venus fly trap as security alongside regular hunting dogs. Also, open carry is illegal in South Carolina. If someone were to shoot any of those plants it would become another legal matter.” She chuckled at how inventive people could be with laws.

“Are the residents compliant?” he did not fully like this, his experiences shouting at him, though another part of his gut soothed him.

“Yes, they seem to be. I think they comply because they have business and protection rights with Umbrella. Some of them love living with Tyrants as well. So, they don’t want to lose this with as they say ‘nosy’ journalists.” Naia explained, “They think they are, in many ways rightfully, living in enviable situations. Tyrants are not necessarily free beings and they are now allowed to live everywhere due to many socio-political situations. Many of them, as I detailed to you a bit, have to do with citizenship. American Tyrants, for example, are not easily allowed in EU without permits or China, even Japan has laws stating they should stay in US based camps and take special permissions to travel around the country. Though Okinawa considers itself a Tyrant free-zone. Okinawa and Deijima do not allow Tyrants of any kind. BOWs such as Lickers are also limited. There is the thing that as Tyrants are usually military ‘weapons’ they cannot easily tour around the world.”

“That makes sense. If I was say right now home, well, as a FBI agent it would be curious for me to see some Tyrant from another country walking by. My training and other instincts would not consider them ‘safe’ or you know — trustworthy. I know you work with Tyrants and this seems a bit negative but I hope you understand —”

“No, I understand. You are who you are. That’s why I like you.” Naia conferred, “You see.” She stopped for a while, they had been holding hands so he stopped too, “I sometimes am too ‘optimistic’ or ‘hopeful.’ It may not entirely be a negative thing. But…” she moved her hair and he in turn moved another strand for her, they were close and they smiled, “I mean. I may sometimes be ignorant of certain things you are. So, learning your views and perspectives I also take as a learning experience.”

“Don’t count yourself short you know.” Leon added, though he did feel honoured she wanted his expertise as well, he liked being useful to people he liked, even Ada considered him useful, and he pushed the thought away, Ada was the past and Naia could be a future and he did not wish to jinx it, “I am glad you are assessing information. With training you might make a good agent.” He meant it. She could easily with training be an FBI behaviourist; he had studied her and his experience stated so, she seemed to know people well enough and if she didn’t would research on them acutely. She had a humbleness in knowing she would not know everything. Being cocky like Ada is useful but also admitting your limits, which Leon did, was also useful. Cockiness could also get you so far. Besides, Ada had at times failed on her espionage missions due to it. He even pointed it out to her during their times together, not to be cock himself, and she would hit his hand playfully and admit she was less coordinated when she was younger.

“With my body type?” she laughed, a bit self-deprecating, “I mean…”

“Agents need to come in all shapes and sizes. It is a myth to believe a certain body type is always the best I found this out in my experience. Yes, maybe we all need to be fit and you can be more fit but being more fit does not mean well so advertisement level toned. Sometimes, our agents look ‘ordinary’ and this helps us in data collection and plainclothes infiltration. You need to have people with different expertise. I am gonna be honest.” Leon confided, sighing.

“What’s wrong?” Naia got a bit worried. She could see something was weighing on him and she was sad it was.

“I need your advice.” He blurted it out, not at all easy for him to do, he had been a solitary wolf all this time, so, this was difficult, “I am having to work with well, I guess you guys call him…032, I think he is Ivar now right, and Innara, 053. Well, them and this 022…I forgot his name. Well, they have all been asked to do this mission in the outskirts of Raccoon City. And I have to go with them. The FBI also wants naturally, intel, and they need to stay in the loop. Hell, that is why they also sent me. I also came here for other reasons. Inspection of facility. And, well, to see if Chris Redfield had been here. He is kinda MIA from his family. Claire does not know where he is and well. One of the last times this had happened was well Raccoon City and now that is like some sort of ground zero. Everyone knows about it to some extent. You know if someone told me being part of history was such a bitch. I would have just jumped out a while back…I hope this conversation just stays between us. I said some stuff…” Leon had confided to Naia some classified information, it may be against protocols, not the first time he had done this, when he instinctually knew to trust others, he did, which was something Ada did not do as easily, well, they were different kinds of animals. He figured, later on, gender also dictated how they could act. His relaxation of rules may indicate he was more open as categorised as a ‘man.’ Ada would make people think at a time she was less credible. Sexism sucks but he knew it was there. Yet, with Naia, he felt he could trust and well —

“You wanna get information from me too?” Well, that. “Sneaky are we Leon?”

“Sorry. But —”

“No. You admitted it. I don’t mind helping. At least, you weren’t tricking me.” Then concerned, “Is Chris, is he a danger to himself?”

“I didn’t wanna say this to Claire. But…” he sighed, “When we were after Arias, I didn’t fully like what I saw. Yes, I loved his commitment, I loved how he was dedicated and such a good soldier. But I was a bit puzzled why he wanted like seriously _wanted_ Arias to be a full-on bad guy. I mean, you could see the man was fucked up.” He looked at her, oceanic eyes looking at coffee eyes, meshing to make a planet-like gleam, “Like, when Chambers told me how he was gonna attach his dead wife’s arm onto her. Even when I was fighting him. I knew he was in the deep end you know. There was no way he was mentally healthy. And, it started with the drone bombing of his wedding. Chris did not want to even consider this as a trigger. He just didn’t even after the mission was over. It bothered me. It was like, a sort of dissociation, as you counsellors and psychologists speak, a form of well, empathy deficit. I know this seems really weird because hey this is Chris Redfield but I am not sure anymore you know, Naia? I don’t wanna scare Claire or add to her fears of her brother. BSAA says he has taken leave and well Jill seems to also think this. They didn’t tell her shit. She and he go way back. They sent me and well I studied Jill a bit and we talked as friends and she genuinely doesn’t know about this. Even if she suspects it a bit as she has those skills she had not decided to pursue them and I think that is understandable as well, she had her own life to deal with. Please don’t tell her.”

“Freyr.”

“What, Naia?”

“022. His name is Freyr. I think he and Innara are best friends.” She smiled and stopped walking and hugged him. Leon was quiet and taken aback for a minute, then hugged back. Melting into the warm embrace, “Don’t worry, Leon. I won’t tell Jill. She looks _sad_ when I sometimes talk to her. And, it’s Chris. Someone close to her, so, I rather not mount on her worries.”

“She did tell me…” they broke the hug, “They dated and he always seemed _against_ certain things about her. Like her attraction or understanding of Nemesis was taken as an _aberration_ ; something she should have _hated_ and _condemned_ about herself and NOT _accepted_. It got to the point, where Jill felt she was being scrutinised by some legal body rather than someone who was meant to be her long-term boyfriend. They eventually had to quit the relationship.”

“I can understand Chris a bit…hear me out.” Leon picked up his hands in defence, “Like, obviously it might seem outre to like someone who was basically stalking you and beating the shit out of you.” Naia nodded, that was irrefutably true, even if it was under Umbrella’s directives, Jill was running for her _life_ , which Nemesis was attempting to _end_ without much qualms too, “BUT.” The ‘but’ was there, “I have feelings for Ada Wong. I know this may not be the best time to say this. So, I am sorry.” Naia shook her head, it would be immature for him to let go overnight what he had nursed since he was twenty, besides, he did say he cared about _her_ now, that was what was _important_ to her anyways, “Well, now they are _lukewarm_.” This was the truth, “But it does have to do with _what_ we have _faced_ as well, you know?” he gave her an indication, “Because _that_ is _something_ I can only share with Claire and Ada. And, to some extent, Sherry. So, it is hard for me to forget this bond I have with Ada on account on of all of this. I think you shrinks call it trauma bonding.” She nodded.

“And, well, even I get the _stink-eye_ from many because of my affections for Ada. I can see it may be odd Jill likes a Tyrant but no one else aside I think this guy called Carlos was there. How can she talk about this to Chris? She can’t easily because maybe he would consider himself culpable for leaving her behind to chase after Wesker, for the man called Brad Vickers dying, their teammate. For the whole of STARS to be disbanded because of Wesker and all those events at Spencer mansion, which as you might know, it has been semi-public for some time and the area has been sealed and also FBI operated. Now, the labs are archives as well as small testing site.” Naia nodded, “Now, I wasn’t in Spencer mansion. Jill and Chris was — I can understand some of the madness due to Raccoon City but the fact someone’s own Captain or leader decides to like say ‘fuck humanity’ and go loco. That is _hard_. Like, Ada wasn’t my friend from before. Wesker was supposed to be friends enough with them. And, to see that he was off the deep end. That’s gotta be tough. So, liking a Tyrant when you have all these levels of crazy going on. A Tyrant who knows what he did and won’t feel guilty for _abandoning_ or some stupid ass _hypothetical_. I see this as a _need_ ; as a ‘need’ not everyone can fulfil. And, well, Nemesis may fulfil this need of _understanding_ and _acceptance_ , for better or worse, to Jill. A shared need that they were both going to die and that death came not ONLY through them but also Raccoon City blowing up. Part of it is also what me, Claire, Sherry and Ada share too. Even without G creature like we would be dead because NEST was gonna explode and this was before we saw the city get basically nuked from a distance. Chris should have gotten this _better_ than me of people. And, well. What we discuss, let it stay between us. I told you some confidential stuff but well, I had a feeling you can be trusted. And, I wanna work with someone not affiliated fully with any agency. You are BU but you are new. So, it helps.”

Leon explained it perfectly. There was a _need_ to be understood at such a _vulnerable_ time. And, Nemesis, even as a stalker, would also be _vulnerable_ ; those mutations she saw, from confiscated files of Nikolai they had retrieved, showed Nemesis bursting out of his body in a way she was genuinely scared by. He seemed unable to contain his body in stable shape and also his parasite became denatured and grew larger in size, ripping out into visible spikes and all. When his arm was cut off he went back to tentacular _familiarity_ as if this was a way to process the _trauma_ of losing limbs in horrific ways. It also was detailed, by scientists later on, that Nemesis was losing his ‘structural integrity’ and the ‘internal map’ of said integrity. Each rapid mutation lessened his brain functions considerable; his adrenalin went overdrive; his hormones were out of control — it became a kill or be killed situation. So, he loses the ‘idea’ of a bipedal or quadrupedal arm and regressed to pushing out his parasitic self and so the tentacle now, overgrown and mutated as well, served as his limb. She read this, horrified to know her friend had been going through so much, some things he may have not remembered aside a feeling of helplessness and deterioration. She was happy if he did not remember. It was a terrible memory to remember and also a terrible way to feel and losing the ability to think, _slowly_ , perhaps even _painfully_ , to the point, you may be _aware_ you are losing _something_ of yourself but unable to do anything about it. It made her scared that night to sleep.

“You are right, Leon.” Naia smiled, “Don’t worry, things stay between us.” Then holding his arm, “But you are saying something else?”

“It’s hard working with BOWs like Tyrants.” He says this after a moment’s pause, “I mean. I have only encountered Tyrants as _enemies_. I know Arrkoth Tyrants aren’t my enemies but it hard for me to change stuff overnight, ya know? I am _trying_. But today, like during a training session, 032…Ivar…he made a mistake that would have made a wall collapse on this another guy called Celio Kobayashi. I almost _aimed_ my _gun_ , and assault rifle at him. Before I could check myself and this woman, Dr Helen Kensley, started berating him and so I relaxed. I think Innara saw me and raised a disapproving brow. I saw he is so nice and so I literally felt _ashamed_ because I knew he had the rights to _judge_ me as I was judging them too. But, it becomes like some asshat sort of maze.” He pinched his nose, he was looking stressed now, “It was seriously muscle memory. But they obviously, understandably, read it as a display of prejudice. I have to go on a mission with them and yet I fucked up and now there may levels of distrust on my side and theirs. I feel like I acted understandably but…I also acted stupidly. Aside my profession, this seems, kinda dumb on my side too. Naia, what the fuck am I supposed to do? I can’t say ‘no’ to the mission. I am right fucking _here_. It would take time for someone else to reach here. Like why would they even do that? Arrkoth would get super suspicious if more FBI agents come here without a reason. I feel _fucked_.”

“Maybe, just talk to Innara. And, well, see him _like_ Ada.” Naia gentle touched his face and made her look at him, “You need to see this also from the angle of _you_ back when you were younger. When you had more trust to give. Treat him like that. Tell Innara how you feel. I have seen him and I think he will understand. If you personalise this moment this would help you, them and the mission.”

He touched her face, “You really think so?”

“Yup.” She smiled.

They arrived at Leon’s place. They got inside. It was less messy and Naia could see there was days Leon slept on his really comfy and plush, velvet chaise lounge, which was covered in a pelt of a sheep and stag. Humane fur. And he put a nice quilt on for extra warmth though the furs seem enough. There were some open cans of beer, Pepsi, Coke and Sprite on them. And, some cans of cold coffee and a mug smelling of espresso. Leon blushed a bit and rubbed his hair. He had not expected company. Single life had spoiled him a bit. He seemed to have had his laptop on too. Perhaps, before coming out to the balcony, he had been working. She could see files open. One of them was on Glenn Arias. There had shoots from a flying vehicle it seemed, they looked like aerial shots, Naia was getting good at reading angles as she had studying herself and Tyrants’ footage were usually captured by on-ground or aerial drones; with the exception of lake ones if a body of water was nearby. Arias looked fucked up as some weird G mutation sort of being. It was apparently, as she saw highlighted on the file, a massive mutation of A, triggered and a form of catalyst was used to speed up the process. It worked also as unlike G, Diego, a friend of his had been part of the equation, stabilising, ironically, his form and keeping his purpose.

“By that time,” Leon saw her reading his laptop as she bent down, “He lost it _completely_. Not only did he wanna shag Rebecca Chambers but he also wasn’t calculating that there was no way he could come back from that. I mean.” He pointed, “That is a hard thing to back from.” There was a footage of Leon, it seemed like a gif some tech made, of him being thrown in the air and coming down, superbly, to hit Arias on his shoulder when he was this mutation. Leon looked away blushing but Naia looked at him appreciatively. “Yeah, you know by now, I got used to all these guys turning into some shit or the other.”

They both laughed. Leon approached Naia and she approached him. They started kissing quite passionately. Yet, he undressed slow and so did she. She felt a bit embarrassed. She was slower. She was getting conscious, so he helped her off her lingerie, “You’re beautiful.” He slowly kissed one of her breasts and nuzzled them and kissed her neck.

“Look, who is talking. “They both chuckled to her statement.

They both lay naked in bed. They only held each other and kissed and caressed one another. Soon, they feel asleep. They did not make love yet holding each other was enough for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoped you guys loved this chapter. Please tell me what you think =)


	14. Revelations in a Quiet Courtyard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait guys! This is pretty much a Nemesis, Nian Zhen and Innara chapter! I hope you guys enjoy it!
> 
> This chapter is dedicated to my pal, Avanious. And well my friend Nic. Thanks Nic for reading this far!

**Revelations in a Quiet Courtyard**

Nemesis was walking around the grounds of Arrkoth. He walked into the courtyard he met Naia in. He sighed. It seemed strange. It wasn’t a long time ago but _living_ it was long. It had been a month and a half. The last three weeks he had not seen Naia. He was attempting to have a relationship with Jill. It wasn’t bad though. She was _seemingly_ available. She also realised she had not also talked to Naia. Both of them were feeling a bit _guilty_. Though people could get busy, they did still live in the same Facility so they were just so refamiliarizing with themselves — which, was actually _hard_.

They had not seen eye to eye back in 1998. They were enemies. Jill and Nemesis had taken a step and now they were lovers. It was a gargantuan leap without really a process of healing from what happened. It may have happened suddenly, and it had been _rushed_ — but it felt _right_. He really did enjoy spending time with Jill. He _needed_ it too. It seemed both of them needed each other to move on. Which was telling. He wondered though — did the unstoppable force (Jill) have it worse than the immoveable object (Nemesis)? — after all, he had been in a coma for around the last twenty years and more. Jill had to live through these twenty years. He was somewhat sad. It was not she did not move on…however, so many things had hurt her. She had talked about her time with Wesker too. Something, which he seemed indirectly responsible for but she didn’t blame him. In a way, she wondered if she was _grateful_ on it. After all, if she had died as a failed _experiment_ she said she would not be pleased with it. Did she like what she did? Being cognizant on it? Not really. Well, she did shut it off at times. Wasn’t conscious always and for that she was also grateful.

It was what happened to her with Wesker and TriCell that made her have a genuine soul searching. What did she want? What have she accomplished all these years? Jill had spoken to him. She had been in a monastery for five years. In a remote part of South-East Asia. On the border of Myanmar and India. In that monastery, silence was observed unless necessary and there were daily meditations. It was not fully a celibate lifestyle and there were unions but she needed that time to also stay away from Chris and anyone from her life. She needed to unplug from technology and be in a state of happiness, which did not involve Jill Valentine, STARS operative or BSAA soldier, she just wanted to be Jill Valentine, a person who could heal.

She needed to be in the monastery anyway. After the horrible effects of the P30 experimental parasite-like organism, Jill was frail. She would have memory lapses. She was close to having early onset Alzheimer’s. There were many moments she walked out of her house with a robe and nothing else and once was harassed in the street until Carlos came and punched the sleaze to kingdom come. It was Carlos who told her she could not delay counselling or anything. Of course, she had psychosomatic injuries. She told Nemesis she went into violent laughter in the therapist office and then broke down and cried and the woman actually hugged her. She said there were moments, she thought she was a teen again and went to school. Only to remember she was in her late twenties/early thirties and she hadn’t been to high school in around fifteen years.

Nemesis partly knew how she felt; he had to relearn basic body motions. Movement. Learning how to speak more than “STARS.” And, he also had nasty memories of his body failing. In weird and bad ways. Of his pain of facing horrible mutations. It was something he always shuddered to remember. And, hearing about Jill, made him sad. It seemed she had faced so much while he was in coma. Her victory was there but also these pains. Jill seemed to take it with a reassuring enough smile. Yet her eyes spoke. Those memories and experiences had taken a toll of her and she had been unhappy. She told Nemesis she had got back to active duty around four years ago but even then she took it easy on the field before she broke out hard again. They needed someone to help them with all the BOWs and she was an expert in BOWs in one form or another.

This made Nemesis have a pride on her. In a way, he was her _first_ BOW. So, she now knew a lot (to this Jill playfully punched his shoulder). It was nice to have someone he knew from his life, from a tangible past, he could speak with about similar experiences. Jill agreed wholeheartedly. She had told how Chris disappointed her in that department. How he had always, in some ways, pretended they were perfect soldiers without much of grey areas or issues. She could not pretend anymore. She _refused_ to pretend things and she did not know how she could stay with someone who made forgetting and denying to some degree his priority. When he asked about the monastery. She simply said after she had stayed there for five years she found some clarity. The monks there explained there was not much they could do for her and she didn’t wish to gain permanently into their order. She thought on it and came back. She explained coming back was also hard. Yet, that time, Carlos was not married and he was happy to receive her. She had been stupid. For she had not been happy to see him. Yet, who else could she depend on? For five years she had been gone. Did she even have friends left?

Did she? Nemesis had asked politely. She said most people have had moved on. Some of them had families or relationships and great careers. She only knew one high school friend who joined police as her and by then she had become Sergeant. It seemed people like her hardly could move on in upper echelons because what they did was good enough to be ‘stagnant’ in that area. Nemesis likened it to a Tyrant’s way of life. Jill had smiled and agreed. It was like they were both, humans and Tyrants, a form of BOW or soldier who could not have a life aside battle. It may have its adrenalin rushes. But it did not lead anywhere. Jill had mentioned she had wanted to get pregnant at one point but Chris and she tried and it did not work out and she had accepted maybe later. Though, she did not know when and how she would ever be pregnant now. Especially, after all that had happened. Nemesis only embraced her. Words were not enough for any of this.

Now, these were things he did not know how to help with. How could he? Did Jill even want children…with him? She had not stated anything and he did not want to presume anything either. He, himself, did not know if he could have children. Was he capable of it? He had been an older model Tyrant. Who could be breed with? Was his sperm even reproductively viable? Until, Jill spoke it, he did not think of it much. He was a bio-weapon. He was not necessarily a male individual to some. Some people may even think his kids with Jill would be a freak of nature or a desecration? He did not know. He would wish to know and he did not have anyone at the moment to talk about these crucial subjects. And, there was some shyness involved. He did not necessarily need to wear protection. He was sure his virus eliminated chances of gonorrhoea, syphilis, shingles and herpes.

Though there could still be apparently other kinds of Herpes and Syphilis variants with Tyrants and human copulation if one did not practice hygiene, even if condoms were not always necessary. Yet, he still had less ideas of the sexual health and reproduction of his own species, let alone the interspecies coupling with other BOWs and humans. He felt awkward asking this to Lewis and Hayden and he was sure in some capacity they would know things and in others, they would know nothing. It was a frustrating situation to say the least. Yet, he needed someone who _knew_ about Tyrant biology, community and socialisation for these details. Asking Naia could be an option, yet she was also knew in the field. She would be researching more on the socialisation and empathy part primarily. Well, she may not have all the answers. Additionally, it would be awkward to not talk to her for three weeks and then present a quandary about his reproductive health and assessment. It would actually look _rude_ , in human terms, or even to BOWs, an exchange that either means mating interest or an off-putting sense of ignorance without a more valid context.

Speaking of someone _knowing_. Nemesis had not at all expected to see Nian Zhen. He felt also guilty for not visiting him. He had attempted once but the nurse told him that Nian Zhen had been put on isolation as he gotten hysterical at one counsellor meeting and had tried to attack a guard. Nemesis was a bit surprised. He had known there were discrepancies in Nian Zhen but he did not know to what extent were his mental and emotional afflictions. There had been rumours but he had not paid them much mind and when he asked Lewis and Hayden, they had merely said they did not know wholly, which was true, as when they once asked Nian Zhen he told them, in an uncharacteristic way to go fuck themselves. A seeming way to end a conversation before it can even begin.

Yet, here was Nian Zhen. He seemed to be having coffee, also from Lucas’s stall, and reading something on hi STONE tablet. It may have been a book. Nian Zhen did enjoy reading books when he didn’t have to work, which was rare and so he enjoyed reading anything fun and humorous because to him life was already too serious. Though he did have reads of literary fiction. He didn’t wish to disturb him and he wondered if he should be moving along as he did not wish to interrupt. Yet, he did have many questions. And, he didn’t meet Nian Zhen. He looked harangued; his health was not well and it showed. Though his eyes seemed clearer than he had seen from the last few months and he did seem to have a level of coherence he had not seem to erstwhile possess. A good question: what was going on with him? Should he ask? It was moments like these where he felt being a bio-weapon was way easier than being a _person_.

Though his choice was taken away from him when he saw Innara come over. What mattered was he was not in his usual mode of happiness and optimism. That was saying something. Innara had to be a bit of a positive person like Slevin. He and Slevin were positive and hopeful. Veles was — Nemesis had a hard time trusting him because Veles seemed to only talk when he felt he would need to speak and also, he was reserved in a way, which elicits questions in him. Though, one could admire this Elite Tyrant who was also called ‘A Wesker in Tyrant Form.’ He seemed to have patience, followed orders without much complaint and was said to have the highest IQ among Tyrants in Arrkoth Facility. Even compared to the still relatively new Arrkoth Facilities in Alaska and Maine. Arrkoth South Carolina was their main Facility and he was one of the most prized Elite Tyrants around.

Nemesis knew this was a big deal because Veles was not some modified or enhanced Tyrant or a new Tyrant type like Draugen. He could be classified as another Elite Tyrant: yet, he seemed to have surpassed many aspects of a regular Elite Tyrant. So, many humans and Tyrants admired him. More so, they did Slevin, who was well-liked but his amicability was not everyone’s go to skill. Nemesis knew this as a law of the world. People prefer ferocity to amiability, aggression than kindness and a sense of power play than egalitarian values. Though, Nemesis believed in the long run, things have to be taken in doses. Slevin was more dependable in many ways by his personality alone. He did not believe or practically think Veles would be accommodating, patient or helpful with others. Which, he was coming to realise, was an invaluable skill.

Though Innara seemed completely unhappy with Nian Zhen; this Tyrant did not phase easily to Draugen’s smart ass comments as well, which pissed off Ivar the most and now he seemed absolutely furious, a scary sight, at Nian Zhen. Nemesis was wondering if he should intervene when Innara pushing Nemesis had him take a step only for Nian Zhen and Innara to actually begin a scuffle. The tablet fell down and Nemesis was wondering if he was watching something unfolding in the most comical or chaotic manner. There was limited violence on each of them. True, a human had more physical limitations than Tyrants and were physically weaker more or less than Tyrants, so, most of their hits had to _count_. He suspected Nian Zhen knew of how to handle Tyrants as he did understand their anatomy. This seemed to be more on the lines: A friendly scuffle? Nemesis scratched his head. No point in getting involved.

“Fuck you Nian Zhen! You asshole!”   
“Fuck you as well you bitch!”

“Really? Forgot my name already?!”

“Innara you can eat my ass!”

“Gladly!”

“I didn’t mean it like that!”

“I rather eat your ass than see you depressed all the time!”

“You ain’t my Mom! Fuck off!”

“You need a mom as you are acting like a little bitch!”

“Tyrants don’t have parents!”

“Yeah, cause you humans need a diaper change till you are 50 and need us to do it!”

“Hey fuck you, Tyrant!”

“Fuck you. Human! Or no wait! You ain’t a human! You a blob fish dressed like a human!”

“What the fuck?!”

“A human being accepts what happens and tries to do what they can! Not feel sorry for themselves all the time!”

“I can mope! I can scream! I can cry! I am only fucking human! How do you expect me to take loss so easily?!”

“You think I don’t know loss?! I lost three of my friends while I been here! Many had not made it! Some of them died in battle! Another got sick and slowly died! Tyrants aren’t supposed to really get sick! He had a genetic defect and so he aged rapidly and he passed away! Do you realise how shocked he was and we were! Tragic things don’t only happen to you! Sadness isn’t your personal capital! We can be sad too! But we would be ‘punished’ by ‘decommission’ if we were too sad to no longer work! We don’t have the luxury as a scientist like you to mope around! Some of the tech humans don’t either! So, how does it feel like to make sadness your privilege?! Huh?! It’s not fair! But I don’t lash out about it to you! Talk to me!”

Nian Zhen looked pretty worried for a moment but before he could speak, Innara stated: “This isn’t the Oppression Olympics. I am not saying my pain is worse than yours. I am saying I am not just some soulless bio-weapon. At least not completely, so, I know pain as intimately as you. Pain, like happiness, can similar. Fine. You get pissed at the counsellor because you think they may say you are unfit to work, right? You don’t want this to look like you are losing your career, right? Well, the counsellor doesn’t need to like, look into it. Gresham may give you a temporary suspension for your own good. I know…I know, sometimes working seems to be the best thing to do to stop the pain from eating you up…but, you still need to talk about. Unless, you want the vacation time? I know you a tad bit to know you like working. We all like having control over some things and work now helps in that, right? So, unless you get a bit better, I don’t think anything is really stopping them to really well, suspend you for a while. So, let’s talk a bit.”

Nemesis felt like an intruder. The feeling was somewhat ‘new’ — prior, when he was on a mission, he was meant to intrude, disrupt, rupture and make plain pain of all sorts. But that was him ONLY as a bio-weapon. This was not a situation where being a weapon would necessarily help the situation. It seemed so easy at times to destroy and deracinate. Yet, perhaps because it was so easy meant there was not always a need to engage? To understand? To employ his other faculties? He could be hyper-focused and hyper-aware. But having a one-track mind didn’t always help. Another proof was right in front of him. Nian Zhen had tried to be all-business. Sure, he was NOT a Tyrant and so humans would cave in easily in places Tyrants like him could thrive but in a similar stroke of luck he too seemed burned out. Nemesis seemed okay out for everyone. But he still had massive pains.

Only two nights ago, he had groaned out in agony and fallen out the bed he and Jill now shared. These were pains that were directly and indirectly given to him by Jill but they also were not Of Jill. She could only watch and stay mute; caressing him and slowly apologising over and over. Until he shut it, with kissing her. She was not really his abuser. They had been enemies. She had retaliated to his attacks. Though there were other feelings he did not feel congruent to express at the time. Feelings he sampled yet, were not sure of the nature to what it would mean and lead. It at times scared him.

Yet, while this happened, it was not a feeling he was used to. The other extreme of evolution; a massive profligate, dementing of cells and a burst of adrenalin and hormones so supernovae in nature, he could _taste_ it, inside out. He was, unfortunately, used to those transformations and the bodily sensations that accompanied them. What he was not used to was this feeling. It could only be defined as a catatonia of pain. He could not move. Feelings and vision zoomed out in another kind of ‘high’ — could see the worry in Jill as she cried for him and he could not at all respond or do anything. She began to cry and he wanted to hold her. His parasite and his Tyrant body — made as useless as a statuesque monstrosity. He felt like an experimental slab reject. He He

He came through. Saw the ceiling fan move as he hummed to it, like a vigil offering in some Church of Kinesis, in an anti-clockwork movement. His own body had reversed in time and nostalgic bruising. Yet, the anticlockwise way allowed him to feel again. To know his body was not ONLY one state. When he came to after an hour. He saw Jill had called the medical centre and they had told her Nemesis was not ‘perfect.’ He was liable to shut down. He could see from the frown in her face their answers offended her. She was beginning to look at him as a lover not some automaton sex toy, Tentacle Porn Version 12.0. Yet, when she berated them with her tone of a veteran and soldier, they acquiesced to apologies and spoke on his behalf, with more pronouns and nouns of individualisation. Nemesis had bodily trauma and pains, which no new body could ever be able to cure.

He was NOT a tableau rasa. He was a product of what he had experienced and endured. It seemed to erase that would also erase his data logs and so he would no longer be Nemesis or his shadow but a ‘new’ brain-dead Tyrant who would equally die between seven days due to sensory deprivation in his neuron and motor cells. His body needs his history to function. This may not be ‘cured’ by science. It seemed only a Law of the Universe. Bio-mechanical, bio-chemistry with physics combined. They were understaffed but hope the new members recruited could help delineate and pen papers of this phenomenon. Interesting, yet to Jill it meant hugging Nemesis and singing him a song from her youth. He woke to it. Feeling, he was sharing something significant and intimate with her. He was happy to know her besides STARS, P30 and days of a soldier. Those could not be erased but he felt at peace to know there was more to her as there was more to him. He embarrassed her back. She began to cry. He cried with her. In mutual tears of comfort and relief they feel asleep.

“Yo, Nemesis.” Nian Zhen called out to him. Perhaps, he did mind being spotted. “You can come join us. You already seen enough, right?” he did not seem annoyed, playful at best. Nemesis wondered if he did stoke his annoyance. Or, trusted him enough? Either way he decided not to invade their privacy. Sometimes, being invited seemed better than being intrusive.

“Nemesis!” Innara looked pleased to see him. Even went and gave him a little kiss on the cheek. Nemesis had to smile. It felt like he was responsible in helping Innara back with his usual personality. Which was saying something. He was not exactly used to seeing Innara in a slump and had NO idea what to do on it. He was realising living life as a weapon seemed sometimes so _easy_ compared to this. Though, he did not wish to be easy now. He had been easy for too long so preferred this. He wondered what poor Innara had been thinking. It was so obvious now and it had been WAY before, that he seemed to have a big feels for Nian Zhen. Though, he wondered if Nian Zhen had any inkling. Or, if he did what did he feel? Did he love Innara back? Things that needed to be discovered one day maybe.

“I am sorry I was just here to well, walk…” that sounded strange coming from a hulking Tyrant as himself but Nemesis knew he had no better way to phrase it aside that he was walking. He was still getting a hang of speaking. When he met Naia in this same courtyard he was being as rudimentary as his STARS monosyllabic days. But he was tested as having a VERY adaptable parasite who was helping him learn faster and faster working words. This means his days of also being an illiterate may not be so a long a time. Though, his parasite could be mercurial. He did not always understand ‘it’ or ‘them.’ When he was in the Raccoon City incident his parasite seems more geared like him to assess target evaluations and get after Jill and anyone in the way. It was like a part of his adrenalin. He was so busy chasing and surviving he did not always register his parasite as a living being of its own. Or, rather, a life tied to his. It felt strange.

He had hardly _conversed_ with his parasite in ANY meaningful manner aside battle tactics. He had to ask Nian Zhen to learn more when he was better as he hardly felt he understood his parasite. For him, it was just another tool in his arsenal before. Now, he was not sure. The parasite did help him find Jill and kept him going when he was in pain. Though, in the end his parasite was also overwhelmed and tired. He could not keep his body integrity and the more transformations he was having was seemingly pissing off the parasite as it had to accommodate a new form each time and his new form also was lacking something for his parasite. It actually grumbled deep inside of itself. It had saved him by carrying around a piece of his flesh so he could be ‘cloned’ again. Though after that it seemed to have become quiet. Eerily quiet. As if it did not exist anymore. No, it was still there. It seemed to be resting. As if keeping him alive was a lot of work. Also, he wondered if it had _aged_ as well. He just wondered. There was so much of his own biology he needed to learn. And, being one of the first NE-T models didn’t always help. Some of his files were ‘on ice’ to say the term. Archives that needed to be dug out from flop discs, papers and other old defunct CDs. They had been secretive, redacted info and also well, after Umbrella collapsed they didn’t wanna be part of all of these part illegal things they did.

The attack on STARS had been rebranded as a criminal offence equivalent to domestic terrorism; some of the old Umbrella Heads even in house Arrest had that added to their sentences. Even if STARS was a nuisance to Umbrella and Irons, they were still officers of the law and also figured out Spencer mansion. So, to attack them as spite and battle testing, two birds one stone, was considered equally malicious and without morals of any kind. It did help dig digger that Umbrella coffin. He was still on the peripheries of these legal aspects. It had been argued by Blue Umbrella, a Tyrant, especially a prototype as himself, would not be so inclined to have a binary moral compass as humans or even other creatures. For him, it was something he HAD to do via remote controls or imprinting. It was not anything he could yeet out of, so to speak. Tyrants were more or less boil-weapons. This may change in the future, but this was an essential modern truth. To expect him to be kind and merciful when he had no reason or rationale to was equivalent to expecting Dracula to walk out in sunlight to blend in with the humans. If he showed kindness it would be good in a way. But it would also mean he had failed epicly and subject to immediate termination.

The moral quandary was like a Sophie’s Choice: Could he be kind with these things pushed on to him? For they were. He did not ask to be a BOW or for this mission. It was thrusted onto him. Of course, laws changed and now to create Tyrants for such specific missions was close to banned. It was considered disgusting and inhuman. It was running along new laws also to curtail human avarice of over-farming and mistreatment of domestic animals. Arrkoth was not spared. Their livestock had to be free-range and this actually produced better milk and healthier calves and kids for genetic variance. Also, it had helped livestock live with dormant T-genes, which did not cause aberrant mutations and zombifications. It seemed due to genetic variances, each new generation, either lived with the dormant virus or ‘domesticated’ it or immune to it. This was called ‘The Tyrant Effect’ to scientists.

“And, I guess you saw us fighting?” Nemesis’s thoughts were broken by Nian Zhen speaking, he looked tired still but with more vigour than before and also more of a zeal in his eyes and body. He could sense it.   
  
“Well, you guys made no secret on it.” He rubbed his head; this was awkward but not in a sour way. He wondered if he should leave. Were they waiting for him to leave in some ways? He was about to take a step when Nian Zhen called out to him.

“Hey stay. I think you are not on the low down on some things about me? Right? So, maybe we should talk some more?” Nian Zhen offered and he was a fool to not accept so obviously he did.   
  
They all sat around. On the corners of flower beds, not at all uncomfortable. Nemesis saw a mutated slug go around helping flowers pollinate. It seemed a long time ago when he held one in his hand and when he met Naia in this same courtyard. He grabbed it again with his tentacle and surveyed it with his hand — well, he would be damned. It was the same one. It did not struggle much. He did not grip on it too much either like last time. Did the slug know? Could be. He petted it with his hand and another tentacle and soon Innara also pet it and then Nian Zhen took it from him. The slug weirdly enjoyed Nian Zhen’s presence and decided to move around his thing hospital gown and Nemesis was a bit surprised he did not seem bothered. It did not seem to be of the leech species so Nian Zhen did not have to worry about them. Or, so he figured. Wasn’t sure.

“You know. There was a time I kissed David here. He liked this place too.” The tears came out of Nian Zhen’s eyes and Innara seemed tempted to hug him; he looked at Nemesis, Nemesis seemed to nod. It seemed he was becoming their de-facto leader, which was something he did not sign up for. He had been a solitary predator and soldier. It was somewhat strange.

“Who is David?” He asks this patiently. After all, Nian Zhen was crying. He had seen Nian Zhen cry before. But not like this.

Yet, Nian Zhen did not answer this question, he went on, “I kissed Anika here as well. You know. I am not cheating. It just seemed like a good place to kiss them both. They were my best friends. Even if, I didn’t know them since childhood. It seemed they understood me so much more than anyone else. I met David the first day I came here. He charmed me with his ways of knowing already the formulas we used to help Gerechtslinde breed. We still use them down in Ochre labs. It actually had lessened other work, which used to take so much time before, well Gerechtslinde is a complex plant. A BOW tree who has a lot of animal elements as well. I loved how David made Gerechtslinde like a Holy Grail but also ‘someone’, yes someone, who was connected to most of us. He could make so many things of Gerechtslinde sound interesting. Him and Anika. They just knew the damn tree pretty well. But for Anika. It was mostly the drones. She had a way with them. Many people cannot achieve her level of communicative brilliance with those drones. They lack the understanding, patience and possibly even empathy. To many of the scientists here, the drones are limited beings. They are here as workers and they should be taken as such. They are beings with limited sentience thus are so treated.   
  
Yet, these things did not stop Anika bonding with them. She seemed to know by instinct the particular needs of the drones. Their specifics so to speak. She could talk to them with distinctions. Give them names. To some scientists, the drones are called ‘Fodders’ or ‘Blanks.’ They are not mean to have personalities or personhood for most scientists. This made Anika make loads of logs and both paper and digital journal documentation of them. These are still used in Tyrion labs and in all the labs. It allowed us to understand so much of Drones lifecycle, aging, competence, adaptation and so on and so forth. She even monitored with a small group Drone collective intelligence, problem solving issues and how they retain or eschew and regain what we humans know as ‘individuality.’ She also documented hormone behaviours and how they seemed to act towards themselves and others. It is true they function dominantly as hive mind. But Anika completely changed our understanding of this term and of the understanding of Gerechtslinde and the hive. The atrium space is like a field. We call it Elysium. Anika and David named it that. David learned so much about Gerechtslinde. The time Aska, or Bulbs, was born he was there, and he documented Aska’s exile. We still teach it in the smaller labs on how to detect anomalies and David developed a safety protocol for such future issues. He was getting close to why Gerechtslinde was so aggressive and hostile to Askafroa.”

Nemesis remained quiet. He saw Innara tense up and also look miserable. He got a bit of what was happening. He was getting a bit off. He had been probably so out there when some of these things happened. Did he really wish to know? Even if he was ignorant, he felt the guilt of not asking sooner or not paying attention. This was NOT fair to Nia Zhen. This resolved Nemesis not to run away. He could not. If he did. He would be disappointing Nian Zhen a second time.

Nian Zhen took a deep breath: “It has been like a year and a half that both David and Anika died in that freak accident or whatever it was. I could never fully understand why. They should not have died.” Nian Zhen started wailing and rubbing his hands in his face. He was red and puffy. Almost physically and mentally exhausted. Nemesis stared for while. Crying seemed to be a thing, in his past, he would have loved to inflict on STARS members. Though, crying seemed so complex to him as well. It seemed one has had to _live_ to cry. And, one had to have _knowledge_ to cry as well. It may seem strange, yet it seemed the truth to him. Complex emotions and cognitions lead to crying. He felt this when he had held Jill and cried with her. It seemed life had opened up to him in tears and not blood. Felt a bit strange as to some humans, blood could be seen as both holy and impure. Yet, for him. Crying helped him better. He involuntarily thought what his parasite would think of these years. How did it process them? Well, his thoughts ended, and his actions began as he carefully put his hand on Nian Zhen. Innara had wanted to, yet something, almost like nervousness, had been stopping him. Nemesis took a moment, but realised he was just nervous of touching Nian Zhen at a vulnerable moment.

They both rubbed his back. Their hands could pretty much cover more than his back. Yet, perhaps this was comforting? To know your comfort was larger in size than your body possessing sadness? He felt it could be and so he did gladly comfort him. He came to understand that Nian Zhen — his recent outbursts, disengagement, drunkenness and all of them so-called unprofessional behaviours and been done because he lost people close to him. Handling loss was very HARD. Yet, if they were lost here…it may be even harder. He had to come here where he had memories of them. Of a lived life with them.

After around five minutes of crying, Nian Zhen calmed down. Though he looked considerably pale. Innara had gotten up to go to Lucas’s stand. Lucas gave him coffee and water to bring and he thanked Lucas. Lucas was said to have shown concern, deep concern, over Nian Zhen’s mental, emotional and physical health and had given him a free sandwich because he stated sadness could curb and trash strength down. Nemesis knew this in some way. Sadness or rather a lack of direction, may either make you eat more or less. He was grateful Lucas seemed to understand these so well. Though, he seemed a bit surprised none of the scientists who worked with Nian Zhen seemed to be around him much. Or, decided to inquire about him. Why were some human beings so selfish? The day’s research wasn’t a runaway chicken. He could understand if Nian Zhen had declined visitors yet now was a good time to TRY to attempt to meet and even possibly get him in a good mood. It seemed most people treated Nian Zhen as a colleague or superior. In such an environment, losing David and Anika would be even more perilous. He seemed to understand them as much as they did him. One needs only a few good friends if not a crowd.

_I should talk to Naia again soon_ , Nemesis resolved, _What am I doing? Ignoring her? For what? Some of my seemingly misplaced feelings? She hasn_ _’_ _t done anything. Heck, she hasn_ _’_ _t even badgered me to meet up with her again. I am feeling totally ashamed now. I wonder if Jill feels the same. But I do. I been avoiding her. Probably, she feels alone too? I don_ _’_ _t know. But I been selfish in thinking that I should just focus on my new relationship with someone I gotten to love since 1998 and just ignore someone who values me now. I mean, I haven_ _’_ _t ignored Hayden and Lewis and that new guy who came to our lab a week ago. I should be more intuitive and considerate about this. This is living. Taking ownership in WHAT you do and HOW you do it and WHY and stuff. I don_ _’_ _t want it any other way._

Then he realised he hadn’t seen Slevin either and wondered what he had been up to. Nemesis got severely annoyed with himself. He had been so disconnected from the world. He did not even question why Draugen was missing. Well, not necessarily missing. Draugen had gone for a month to help that mission he had fucked up by doing more kills. He had never told him the reason for it. The reason he attacked the random dude. He should have asked him more.

_I should be more communicative with him. I am his mentor. I am supposed to understand him better. Though the other time we trained and I asked him he seemed to consider me_ _‘_ _nuisance_ _’_ _; he told me he had more experience living than me and that I should stick to the weapons I know and use and not like…bother him with what he does and his feelings. When I told him his missions_ _’_ _accuracy and success rate mattered, he told me to coat his dick in peanut butter and suck on it. I actually wondered if he was serious. But then he busted a flamethrower. Got the emergency fire alarms go off; water jets spray from the ceiling and disgruntled and angry techs made him HELP to clean up the area. And, they did say Gresham told them they could do that. Seems true as he did stay behind and help. Glaring at me and saying I made him lose time in the Adamantium library. I guess he was not going to read books? Though he did hang out there a bit much until he left?_

Nemesis sighed, _I should be getting to know him better. He is right though. Despite me being his NE-T mentor, he seems to have a better grasp or a firmer one in who he is. Not even much confused about his larger parasite too. Techs explained a NE-v T Type has a larger parasite than a NE-a T Type. Makes sense. All of Draugen_ _’_ _s muscle mass. Though as he is the only one. Later_ _‘_ _models_ _’_ _may vary._

“Do you really blame Eveline for their deaths? Even now?” Innara spoke making Nemesis come out of it. He had to register the question again, didn’t he know of an Eveline? He had met her one day at his own lab section. Hayden had been busy taking some blood and parasite samples and Lewis was showing him some YouTube videos, when a petite, young woman with strikingly chiselled features on a small, heart shaped face and long limbs, cool blue eyes and lovely long straight hair appeared before them. Nemesis was a bit confused. How did she have clearance to his area? Who was she? Then he remembered who she was. Before that time with Jill, he had seen a glimpse of her as Nian Zhen lost it towards her.

The young woman who looked like early 20s was certainly beautiful both by her physical appearance, which was nice but also her _aura_ ; she seemed a bit _mysterious_ if that was the right word? Also, by now, Nemesis was realising he had an attraction towards long limbed humans as well, he had his own and the tentacles. She was petite, a bit short but definitetly had long arms and lon enough legs. For her height, she did well, he would think. Though he was wondering her presence and so was Hayden and Lewis, who seemed to know her better than him. Though, they didn’t seem to interact much. Eveline seemed to only know of Lewis and did not recognise Hayden, which was saying something as they usually hung out and worked together. Not only colleagues.

“Hi Nemesis. I am Eveline. I don’t think we met much really. I don’t remember. I only remember that anytime we were going to meet, well, we get interrupted.” She seemed to wait for a moment, as if letting some time for some ‘imaginary’ interruption to come and jinx the meeting, Hayden and Lewis also looked around when they got a wind of what her intentions were. Nemesis, however, did not. He had, perhaps, a better intuition than these guys? Well, even if it was a bit out of practice, he did not _sense_ any immediate danger. Also, he wondered if the pause was for a dramatic effect joke or for some seriousness or both — well, either way, she seemed a bit dramatic in how she presented herself. She wasn’t a teen but she seemed to have some teenage quirks. She could be twenty-one or twenty-two. Meaning, she was way younger than most of them in the room as Hayden and Lewis were at least twenty-four. Or, a year older. His parasite and Tyrant senses could more or less accurate tell a human’s or BOW’s age by pheromones alone if he took time to analyse. Even if he was an ‘older model’ Tyrant knowing such things were relevant for him to stay on target. And, Tyrants had a better smell capacity than humans, if not always as meticulous and aware as canines. Unless, a Tyrant possessed such a modification.

“Well, you could have knocked first. How did you get in here? This is the lab I am kept and not everyone has access to it or can actually enter without valid credentials. I am considered a good source of Umbrella secrets and information so not anyone should be able to waltz in.” His soldier and predator nature prevailed over any other rational recourse, or any societal form of politeness, because for him strategy and information usually served as precedent as reaction and knowledge foundations. Emotion was hardly taught. For the longest time, hunger and pain, were the only emotions he had known — and then rage, at Jill Valentine. He knew he killed Tyrell, partly, because of it. Jill was always escaping. She had allies too. At the time, humans seemed odd to him. The only one who marginally made sense was ironically Nikolai. Because Nikolai did not give a shit about Jill’s survival.

Eveline looked annoyed at him. But in a way which was not at all malicious, kind of bratty. He himself caught himself asking such questions, saw Hayden and Lewis look at him, as if he was chastising a young ‘whipper-snapper’ than a young woman or girl who was a new adult, “Well, I am the Matriarch who helps controls Gerechtslinde. Or, Big Ass Tree. I am a BOW, like _yourself_.” The last part was a bit irritating, but he waited for her to continue, only, she looked _nothing_ like _any_ BOW. She didn’t resemble him or Tyrants, or Lickers, or Hunters or even zombies. She looked very _human_. It was actually a bit disconcerting when he thought about it. She could easily be mistaken as a human. Nothing prominently in her smell as well seemed amiss till a moment ago, when before she confessed, she smelled a bit like something like a _burning_ , like an overproduction of a certain hormone. He sometimes had it too with his parasite. Yet, he could smell no parasite on her. He found himself interested in knowing her anatomy and things. Though, he also realised how the statement sound perverted and wanted to grunt in frustration.

“Can I, help you with something?” Well, now the politeness was coming a bit back, though he continued, “You didn’t answer my questions yet, you know. You should.” He actually got up in an intimidating way, which made Hayden and Lewis a bit worried and move out of the way. With his laced-up boots, his leather vest and black jeans, the 8 foot 7 Nemesis was a sight to behold. However, Eveline did not seem intimidated.

She seemed to shiver though. Nemesis wondered why and then she seemed to _fawn_ at him. This made him actually take a step back a bit. _What_ _’_ _s going on?_ He was kinda surprised. Eveline bit her lip. Hayden and Lewis noticed. Lewis sniggered silently. _Wait, What?_

“Will you _force_ me?” she looked actually _expectant_ about it, making Nemesis blink a moment, not sure how to respond to this, “I mean. I wouldn’t mind.”

He blinked, “I don’t really have to. But I _might_.” He was speaking with a low growl of a challenge, was she teasing him? Challenging him? A part of him was _itching_ for a good fight, perhaps she could give him one? After all, he wasn’t a Tyrant because he liked afternoon tea and liked garden parties — well, maybe he did but…he also loved a good fight and exploring and stalking opponents and prey and well, being a warrior, a predator and a hunter.  
  
Yet, nothing about Eveline indicated similar or same feelings and/or instinct. She was shaped like an innocuous lamb. Someone who would flee rather than give chase. She was lithe and seemed to be able to easily maneuverer out of his attacks if she concentrated on it. Someone who could crawl into spaces, sit tight and hide. Though, was this the _misdirection_? To seem impossibly _frail_ yet also _dangerous_. She did not emanate hostility at the moment, not ones he could read in nonverbal body language and scents of triggering hormones or the tender ‘taste’ of adrenalin.

But even so, her design seemed incongruous for a hunter class as himself. Despite his bulk of muscle, he could side-step pretty well, and dodge fast when needed to evade enemy attacks, a swift movement which could impede rockets or other incendiary hard-pressed ammunitions. And, he could run and had the stamina bursts. So, Eveline’s design seemed very well — unsuited if he would think, initially, for such a long sort of battle. Yes, he was still super tall and imposing. He could be spotted easily if he was not too careful as he stood out more than a standard T-103. Yet, he also could grab missiles with his tentacles and have a good awareness quotient. What was her expertise then? He wondered for a while.

“Don’t encourage her Nemmy.” Hayden spoke all of a sudden breaking his intensity, “You may not understand this, but she is _flirting_ with you and NOT picking a fight.” Well, this was news. 

“Cockblocker.” She almost spat at Hayden, now she looked a bit angry, and folded her arms to Hayden and Lewis giggling at her attempts to flirt with Nemesis.

He was amused and feeling awkward. He wasn’t exactly a traditional looker. Though he has been said by Lewis he had his own BEAUTY. That was exactly the word Lewis used and so did Hayden. Lewis said he looked like a lion at times with his jaw and nose, Hayden said his maw and teeth made him look actually beautiful in some ways. He had a presence, Hayden spoke, and his tentacles made him look super interesting like other NE-Ts but as he was the starting line it’s like he has his own way of making people seem curious about him. Hayden noted Mr X’s entire leather attire and movements made him sexy too in the videos they saw in the archive footage. He said it was hard not to feel some attraction to him and other T-103s these days did not wear that beautiful leather overcoat much, but he wished they did. Their covered quietness was white hot ferocity.

“That still doesn’t answer anything!” Nemesis was getting frustrated and his growl alarmed all three of them and Hayden actually grabbed Lewis. He looked at them, rubbed his head apologetically.   
  
“Eep! Okay, calm down.” Eveline looked cutesy at him, he was not really impressed despite knowing he had a few moments ago though she was pretty but that meant nothing, “I am here to talk properly to you. I am like the ONLY BOW of my kind so I do have special protections and privileges.” She looked at him endearingly, “Kinda like you.”

The statement did not really please him. Nemesis did not think Eveline and he were alike. Eveline could pass for human and he from a mile away would still be a Tyrant. Also, she wasn’t a Tyrant. He was not aware of her powers yet and so could not even say this with a logical framework they were similar. Also, when she said special privileges and protections, he wondered if he had them. Maybe not. He was here, in a lab, not going around much, more or less monitored. He wasn’t going around making friendly introductions like her. Why would she think they were the same?

“We are not the same. You look like you could be in some of those photoshoots Lewis and Hayden show me in those YouTube videos. And, I am not going around having access to places where I am clearly not well…” he looked at her, his eye firm, “Well acquainted with the people. You still should have knocked first.”   
  
Eveline snorted, “Don’t be a sourpuss, Nemmy.”

“Don’t call me Nemmy.” Nemesis snorted back, “We are not friends.” Hayden and Lewis immediately perked to this but also noticed Nemesis was finding Eveline kind of annoying or rather her lack of tact and the ideas of familiarity on some rudimentary basis of both being BOWs with seemingly special privileges.

“How can we friends? If you act like that?” she challenged, folding her arms again. She frowned a bit but then she smiled, “You are right. You haven’t gotten some of those perks yet. I am sure Gresham would give them to you.”

“So, I can go around entering other people’s rooms, _unannounced_?” Nemesis snorted back making Hayden and Lewis giggle.

She death glared at them but then continued, “Useless details! Besides, stop whining on that!” she pouted, “This ain’t totally a room. You know it’s a lab.” Then she walked up to him, he tilted his head and rumble a low growl, as if to show her he was not completely enjoying this interaction, Hayden and Lewis noticed, so did Eveline, “Calm down, hot stuff.” She winked at him and he rolled his eye, “Well, you should ask for a room? Then I can knock the next time.” She smiled at him, Hayden and Lewis looked tired by her attempts and Nemesis actually was thinking and not paying attention, “I mean you didn’t ask so that’s why they didn’t give you one?” A good point actually, shouldn’t he get a room? “Besides, I know you are supposed to be crucial for data but like they can do data logs other times during the say when you are not in the room.” She seemed happy she had made him think, “You should invite me over when you do get a nice room all to yourself!”

“Why, so you can harass him in his own home?” Lewis spoke and fist bumped Hayden.

“You are trying too hard Eveline.” Hayden teased.

“You guys are being trash today!” Eveline looked at them with visible anger.

“Thank you though.” Nemesis interrupted them and made Eveline smile, “I will ask about the room arrangements.”   
  
After that she actually gave him a kiss on the cheek, to his utter bemusement and left. When he told Jill, she looked extremely annoyed. He later heard from Lewis that Jill had met Eveline near Lucas’s coffee and snacks tong and told her off. He had grinned. It turned him on to know Jill was possessive about him. I mean they were dating. Besides, he was happy she meant something so deep to her so she would make Eveline apparently looked flustered and embarrassed. Didn’t stop Eveline flirting much though. He thought she saw her following him in the halls one of these days like she was _stalking_ him. Made him revaluate a little on how she did not seem like a traditional BOW. Though was she prey or opponent? Or, both?

He wondered if she would attempt to attack him and wanted to ask Hayden and Lewis what her skillset was. Jill did not seem to know, and some people seemed reluctant to talk on it. Yet, a matriarch who helped control Gerechtslinde would mean — she could use those Ivy Guardians in battle? Seemed neat like he would ‘impregnate’ other BOWs with his parasite if needed. Yet, it was a time-consuming strategy as it did decrease some of his energy and resources. With those Ivy Guardians though, Eveline did not seem to have a parasite to inject things into, so it may ultimately less cost effective than his methods. This did not make him pleased. It reminded him how old he was and how he was in some cases considered an obsolete model or at least an older one. Yet, he was thinking of strategies on how he would be able to withstand and evade and attack her own abilities. It interested and fascinated him. He always loved and craved a good challenge.

Yet, she did not attack him. Only seemed to stalk him. He was interested in her modus operandi. Was she testing him? Ambushing him? What would her first moves be? “You are thinking on it too much. She likes you and wants to perhaps date you and do you. Or, both.” Lewis told him one of the last times she had been following them in one of the large cafeterias. The cafeterias were a bit segregated. Well, intermixing was allowed but since Tyrants and BOWs could get volatile by nature, initially, people wanted separation. Though the Legal of Arrkoth had been wanting to break this for a long time, reminding others of the nation’s attitude towards segregation and how it could lead to ‘dehumanisation’ and depersonalisation, the very things which are somewhat combatted in the facility to make Tyrant transitioning to society easier if not fully integrated in the next ten to fifteen years.

It seemed some scientists did not care and easily went over to the Tyrant side and many of the techs didn’t give a shit on which side they were supposed to be seated in. They all seemed more or less okay and sat with their friends. Or, even Tyrant they have seeing romantically. Humans and Tyrants or BOWs usually refrain easily from using the word ‘dating.’ Possibly, because many a times it is not dating and may be something intimate, emotionally stimulating or sexual but many of those relationships expire to the realities of the real world.

Tyrants did not fully possess citizenship per say, unless one using a manufacturing code index in lieu of a citizenship and temporary passports, and had liminal rights. There was obviously a power dynamic there, which could not be avoided. It caused the Tyrants frustrations and some humans, who were not parasite bastards, to actually be frustrated too. They could walk with their Tyrant lovers or even friends many a times without local remonstration. Tyrants were seen like plague rats — carriers and purveyors of a disease of the end of 20th century making life for humanity and other terrestrial life if not more difficult than a more than ample nuisance. 

This meant many Tyrants in the cafeteria could give a low growl seeing Eveline. She was ‘passing’ to them in some ways thus able to get a free ride for them. Though Nemesis did not know if she could fully ‘pass’ like right now if she was instinctually stalking him, even human criminals stood out in this aspect. Unlike humans, who cultivated obsessions and perversions, this was Eveline’s typical biology. What she was made to do. Nemesis wondered if humans would take lightly in thinking or presuming, they been ‘tricked’ by Eveline’s more human appearance. At the same time, she had special permissions from Dr. Yvonne Byron and Dr. Alaric Gresham making her more hated by both humans and BOWs alike.

“I already am dating Jill Valentine.” He says this loud enough so several people can hear, including Eveline, many did turn their heads. The Nemesis was dating The Jill Valentine? Well. A power couple? They were thinking. Some sulked, thinking it was supper unfair Jill, a human, could date Nemesis and well not feel pressured by seeming realities. “I don’t need a brat following me around.”

Eveline looked pissed at this statement. Others snickered. “Just you wait!” It surprised him, she was really undeterred, “I can get you better than Jill! I am a BOW like you!” then she ran out of the cafeteria giggling. So, she was stalking him, but like, in a very _human_ creepy way? He didn’t know if he should be worried or disappointed as she seemed to stoop low like some unbalanced human to try to see him around. He liked the way Jill courted him. Fighting in her bedroom. It seemed to appeal to him to test if someone was compatible via battle or something deep or intense then aimlessly following someone around and never doing anything on it. It seemed like a hunter’s coitus interruption or procrastination. It was not like a cheetah will follow a zebra around to ogle at their stripes and wish the zebra will ogle at their spots. Seemed strange.

Going back to the present, he looked at Nian Zhen, why did he blame Eveline? She didn’t _murder_ his friends, did she? As he had noticed in annoyance, she lacked some aspects of a Tyrant or the traditional, run-of-the mutation BOW, the scene in the lab and the cafeteria proved this much. She might have gotten _caught_ if she was orchestrating killing his friends.

“WELL YEAH!” Nian Zhen looked furious, enough to startle both Nemesis and Innara, “It’s because of her they are dead! If Bitch came in that way when that experimental hormone turned Gerechtslinde and her drones crazy! They still be alive!” anger and tears poured out of him, the anger had made both Nemesis and Innara looking at him. It was rare for them to see humans so _enraged_. Usually, Tyrants see humans in _fear_ , crying and running away from them. Maybe, that is why Nemesis had also adored Jill. Even if she looked like she was gonna die she never always showed weakness. She could get mad at him. Perhaps, he was a bit curious to see the gamut of human experiences, as at the time, he hardly felt many. Maybe, in some ways, he was _envious_ then.

“But she did explain that she was called away.” Innara quickly stated but seeing Nian Zhen scowl at him he went, “Look, I am not on her side. But you always snapping at her.” He looked at Nemesis who was also paying close attention, “It is actually not helping you, any of us and even Arrkoth. It definitely not helping you. I know you need to process pain and I know you need to cry and let it out but this rage towards her, well, she hasn’t really done anything.”

“Exactly, the useless fuck.” Nian Zhen commented, Nemesis looked amused. _Good point_. He thought.

“Well, she was called away.” Innara seemed to be making Nemesis FINALLY catch up on the details and also reiterate _facts_ to Nian Zhen, who could conveniently forget them as he was anger and sad, “Besides, we all knew the risks of Linde losing it. There were some other failsafe measures that somewhat failed. The door got jammed by a drones and his vines interfered.” He got slower here, he was saying something triggering, he waited, he did not wish to make Nian Zhen relieve past traumas without tact and empathy, Nemesis felt he was quite good enough to be a counsellor and perhaps Naia could train him. Then he remembered he was conveniently avoided her as well because of those intense feelings; he had been in the wrong.

“You know…” Innara continued, “Eveline was called by Gresham and Kensley for that top mission, much of it is secret. All we know is that they were thinking of experimenting with a new breed of Ivy Guardians. The red and green one. If that triggered Gerechtslinde, it still wouldn’t make her fully culpable. You remember Gresham slapped Eveline for failing to bond with them. I wouldn’t have known, hell even Slevin and Veles may not have, if Hayden wasn’t partially working on the floor that day.” Innara was looking at Nemesis here, he nodded, knowing he had to keep his mouth shut about this as much as possible, it could mean Draugen and some of the others may not know either. “All I am saying, Eveline looked devastated they died. She had been trying to work harder for you as well.” Innara touched his shoulder, “You know being angry with her may not help. You don’t have to forgive. But she is trying to reach you too. She has been trying ever since she died…even when…David did not necessarily _die_ at first…” Innara got quiet here.

Nemesis looked on, someone had to explain to him what those words meant. Was it a virus infection? Nian Zhen slowly closed his eyes. His tears ran again. For a moment, he cupped his face in his hands and sobbed again. Nemesis really had _never_ seen a human being this _vulnerable_. It seemed like a secret.

It was when it occurred to him. This _eerie_ bit. He decided to think on it later.

After what seemed like half an hour, with their mutual silences, Nemesis being patient, seeing the same slug come up to him and he petted them with his tentacles, seems to be growing on him. Made him feel happy in some way. Strange. He didn’t know he could be happy with such creatures. Or, that he would be pleased with their affections or even interests towards him.

“David had a plan to merge his body and brain with a working drone T-sample.” Nian Zhen continued, by then the slug seemed to sense something so immediately crawled away, “So, when he was dying we did the procedure. Only some people knew it was still David. It was like going to be revealed later. Initially, David seemed to be doing well enough in the Gerechtslinde atrium. He was bonding well with the drones. He remembered me and _us_ as friend, even lovers. He remembered me fondly and soon was happy to well, meet me. We did intimate around three times while he was in this new form. He dictated to me his feelings and what he thought, wrote down what he thought. He even confirmed some of Anika’s feelings and thoughts towards drones. Making her research more factually secured as a second opinion or added insight. It was then he started missing Anika. None of what I said was working. He missed Anika too much. He had been in love with Anika you see. We may have been temporarily involved but he was engaged to Anika. I was always the third wheel. I loved them both. They loved me back. Yet as I had seemed to be a bit unsure on who I wanted to be with, they just found more common ground romantically. He also started HATING. Like really _hating_ what he had become. Likened himself to Wesker and all. It was also getting difficult for him to have _individual_ thoughts. Most drones _assimilate_ deeply with Gerechtslinde. An Ivy Zombie or Ivy Guardian’s life revolves around their Mother Tree.

David was getting frustrated by all of this. He felt his cognitive abilities and emotional aptitude were decreasing and progressively he would assimilate as just another drone or some new form of David that had no recollection or history of who he was. He would forget me; he would forget Anika — this caused him to have major depression. He had always wondered what it would have been like to be _closer_ to Gerechtslinde, now he knew, and it was not always as _fascinating_. He started having fights with me. Sometimes, hitting me with vines and once I had a deep laceration in my arm. It was not really him being responsible. He had hormonal and chemical imbalances. His human body started rejecting Ivy Guardian tissue cells. Or, Ivy Guardian cells started rejecting plant cells. He needed chemo to stop T-virus cells from overproducing and driving him insane. He vomited. There were days when he was listless. He was majorly depressed and got diabetes at intervals, and blood pressure and some other heart problems even a plant-based disease like spotted leaves and lack of good nutrition. If Gerechtslinde found him cute before as a human and always had a semi-crush on him, well, David’s antagonism towards Mother Tree made her genuinely _sad_. We recorded her behaviours after some of their unpleasant interactions. It was not overly great. Gerechtslinde also started suffering and this made her a bit unproductive and give out bad sap samples. It was a hot mess. There was nothing I could do to stop it.”

Nemesis was just astounded. So many things, had been happening, while he had still been unaware and slowly recovering from his over twenty years coma, so he had no idea of what Nian Zhen was going through. He had attempted to be funny and sweet to him during their initial days of interactions. While, his friend David was a living proof of an existential crisis. He felt ashamed now. He has been distant then. Probably unhelpful and making Nian Zhen sadder. Well, he had his reasons, but they were not all peachy while Nian Zhen was literally losing someone he loved and his best friend. His Jill was still alive then as she was alive now. Sadness was not a competition. So, he needed to be more attentive to Nian Zhen from now on. He had not trusted him as he was, ultimately, a Blue Umbrella scientist. But he felt and cared so deeply. He was tending to David as he became a plant-human hybrid. It had been a failure. David was angry, losing rational thought and control of his emotions.

“Finally, David made a decision. He asked me, as his friend, to euthanise him…” David broke out again in tears, “And I did! I had to kill my friend with my own hands!”  
  
Nemesis was so shocked hearing this. He imagined if he had to kill Jill with his own hands, as a _mercy_ , hell even Slevin or Naia. Even if was born to kill. It would break him some ways too. To know, he was merely reduced to something as loosely ‘innate’ as his killing nature even with people he was supposed to NOT be doing this with. Nian Zhen also, as a scientist, used his expertise and speciality, something both his profession but a cognitive sacrosanct, to off his best friend from his perpetual misery. There was _nothing_ he could do to change David’s mind. It would be selfish too. David was slowly ebbing away and in pain all day either psychosomatic or pain extreme chemo, more than regulated human dosages or just pain from his physical body shutting down in some ways.

“I kissed him when I said goodbye.” Nian Zhen sadly smiled, “I told him I loved him. I blessed him to see Anika and to be with her and to tell her I loved her too. He said he knew. I held him for fifteen minutes, after he died in my arms. I kissed his forehead. Felt the heat of life fade away from him. He is buried under Gerechtslinde in a spot, which has a blue and white polka dotted rose, in ever bloom by Mother Tree. I usually try to stay away from her. She seems jealous of me because she knew David chose me. I just couldn’t get over it.” Then he sighed, “In all fairness, in all truth, Eveline helped me, even though I didn’t want it, during the time. Even if I glared and snapped at her she came to David. Tried to use Gerechtslinde to help him and tried to talk to his inner mind. Eveline has mind, psionic type powers, she needs a suitable radius but in that psionic field she can communicate and do certain things. It is like some matrix sequence of derivatives and numbers, which are actually scents, words, images, thoughts, meanings and well emotions. But she got sick too. David began to reject her, and she got so affected mentally, emotionally and physically, she has just been back on active duty.

I am being a dick to her because I can’t always blame myself. That day Gerechtslinde got dazed and raged, even if she was there, maybe she wouldn’t be able to stop it. The growth hormone experiment backfired. I was supposed to be there, but I had to see one of our head Lickers outside, Dominic, he seemed to have come down with anaemia, due to malnutrition. Well, it is done. I am gonna try, from now on, to not lose my shit on Eveline. I am tired of feeling sad all the time. Of getting drunk and losing myself and then just waking up feeling hollow. It won’t happen overnight. But…I been in a slump before in my 20s. I think. I can get out of this.”

He did not seem determined, but he did show some clarity in his eyes. It would be a hard road for Nian Zhen to recover. Yet, the fact he _wanted_ it genuinely meant he could improve and heal. No one can force anyone to do such things. It had to come from within. Nemesis knew this all too well. The negative side of it, with his rage aiding his innate mutations and his own will to want to live even after Jill blew big ass gun in his overgrown mouth. It was funny how he was created to be non-autonomous but eventually became one with great agency. Additionally, it seemed from the slug to human beings, it was fascinating how beings would have _will_ and use that to propel forward. Nowadays, so many philosophical questions came into his mind. He actually enjoyed some of it.

“Well, me and Lucas, well…” Innara seemed to smiled as she started talking, it seemed both he and Nian Zhen were happy Innara was acting like his usual perky self, “We have a present of sorts for you. The present came a day ago. We approved it with your doctors. We think you will like _him_.”

Nemesis and Nian Zhen waited as Innara ran towards Lucas. After ten minutes, Nemesis saw a puppy in Innara’s arms. A Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, similar to the beloved retriever. The small puppy licked Innara’s face and but also started sniffing and smelling Nian Zhen, “Do you wanna name him? We all thought you would like some company in your life. A close one. To help you get through the day and make you feel less _alone_. So, here he is. Do you wanna name him?” Of course, Nian Zhen could reject the puppy. Innara hoped not. Nemesis looked at him. Innara did really love Nian Zhen. Beyond feelings of being a crush, Nemesis realised he wanted Nian Zhen to feel better, get better, live better. There was a love there, an intimacy of friendship, which a crush may have omitted. After all, when he loved Jill but mostly crushed on her, he had not understood the extent she had been in pain and suffered due to Wesker or Umbrella. Because he truly loved her, he understood; he would want Jill’s life to be better and happier aside any sexual needs of his own. Love was not truly selfish. Even if it was possessive there was an aim there to want the other to be satisfied, content and happy, to expand their horizons and live the fullest one could.

Nian Zhen looked with love and care at Innara, truly appreciating what he did. Their friendship still a solid. He then gave the same gaze to the little puppy, who was licking his tear covered hands and softly whined a bit, worried about him. “Junjie. Come here.” Nian Zhen took the puppy in his arms and hugged him and kissed him and the puppy licked him all over. He looked so much in peace. Nemesis was wondering if getting an animal companion would be nice too. The slug came back to his hand and he petted it. Well, the slug was small, and they seemed happy in the garden. He picked up the slug and showed him to the puppy. Junjie licked the slug. Much to their surprise the slug brought out a tendril appendage, not at all hostile, nor else Nemesis immediately spanked it with his tentacle, and ‘licked’ the puppy too making the puppy yap in happiness.

Nian Zhen seemed to be busy with the puppy and Innara also petted him. Nemesis did the same. Junjie, with one brown and blue eye, looked at him and licked his maw and his tentacle and started licking his face. “He likes you too.” Nian Zhen smiled. Nemesis cuddled the puppy with his cheek. They were warm and sweet.

Speaking of sweet, he wanted to meet Jill for some coffee. He was learning how to brew a bit and he liked making coffee for her. It had become a routine where if he got up before her he would always make them coffee. He was wondering when Draugen would come back. Draugen was not good at replying to emails. He was such a disorganised overgrown kid. But, he was sure to ask Gresham to mail him soon. He got up and told them of his meeting with Jill. They smiled and joked a bit with him on his relationship with Jill as he made faces at them, jeering them back, before Nian Zhen hugged both him and Innara, thanking them for their to listen and comforting him. His relationship with Nian Zhen was significantly changing. And, he enjoyed that.

Soon, he was heading to Jill’s apartment. He got a text he should let himself in as she had a meeting with Dr Ziya Qadri, the science writer and journalist, as she needed to know about the Lickers in the woodland and forest areas of Arrkoth. Nemesis would be briefed on this later as Jill was updating her maps of their location constantly. Her old habits. A soldier even in leisure. He admired this about her. He would do the same. Also, due to the various Licker types not necessarily the traditional ones of Raccoon City prior, she apparently wanted a tour of the colonies of the Lickers Arrkoth saw popping up and had. She said to him to accompany her, which he would have done either way, he was curious too and he wanted to make sure Jill was okay even if she was a badass.

It was when he was walking back to her room the _eerie_ feeling entered again. He had tried to push it away, but he knew he could not fully. It was how Nian Zhen acted as a human being. He was vulnerable in front of two Tyrants, spoke his heart out, made himself naked with emotions and truth — he was being fully human, mess and all. He was naturally so affected by what happened to his best friends and loves, David and Anika, and showed a lot of history and attachment, a sense of semi-identity and identification to him, as Nian Zhen, towards it, so much so Innara understood it as well.

Jill did not seem to fully DO this. When she talked about her past, the time afterwards, the time she worked with Chris, the time she was on a ship, the time she was not herself with Wesker and abused by him — all of these things. She spoke of them with a concrete distance and detachment, even if she did cry at times, there was something NOT there. Like she was being hollow. Not necessarily present even in her own sadness. The only animated time she spoke of to him with more present emotions was the time they had been enemies.

This had begun to quietly _disturb_ him a bit. He wondered what mental afflictions now Jill was suffering and attempting to repress. He was starting on HOW much of Jill Valentine he knew. And, how much, was she actually willing to share. If she shared at all.


	15. And the World Turns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> HAPPY NEW YEAR!
> 
> I am sorry I been away for four months. This pandemic has been severely difficult and depressing and just overall exhausting. And, I been having some personal issues that left me quite depressed and anxious and well just not in the mood to write. But now I am back! I am happy I wrote almost 10k words in this chapter. I hope to get some things going fast. I usually love build ups and am working on that basically, but I also know that I need to speed some things along. So, maybe I may reveal some things to the readers but the characters need to figure it out. This is a Slevin, Nemesis and Naia chapter. I wanted to focus on these guys for some time. Then I want to go and put the others again.

**And The World Turns**

There was something far away and he tried to reach it on some faraway clearing. At first, all his senses seemed drowned out and so he was not sure where he was reaching. Across a grassy knoll, somewhere closer, he was trying to be somewhere — though had no idea of a destination. It was strange. He always had some target, some coordinates — this time he seemed to possess none. Only, a motivation, a will, could it say it was a will? A desire? To reach somewhere and not just stay here.  
  
Soon, he approached the place. This strange tower. It looked gothic. Though the weather was fair and sunny, and he did not know why, but the tower looked imposing and he was wondering who lived or ventured on this kind of tower. After some hesitation, he was climbing up. He thought it was a staircase — no, it was hair! Rapunzel? This seemed some sort of weird and somewhat odd. Why would he need hair to climb somewhere? Also, the hair smelled familiar and had these blue and green highlights.  
  
Then he saw the person’s hair he was climbing up. It was Naia’s hair. She looked beautiful sitting there; something about her skin and looks seemed to always calm him down. Perhaps, because she wasn’t ‘perfect’ as them? He had always seen humans fawn on them as being super ‘perfect’ or something or the like. It is true, all Steels had variations and did not always look the same, but they didn’t always look so different either. Humans interested him in how different they could look. He wondered what it would like to look so different. And, to not be considered ‘perfect’ and just a person.

Yet Naia also looked too serene. Wait? Why would she be a Rapunzel? — yet it was the coolness of her. This calmness. The non-animated nature of her, which caught him off-guard. Why was she here? What did she want? Why was she not like her usual self? There were things here he could not understand. Then, with some realisation, he understood— he was in some strange dream. Even though. He did not know why he was having a fairy tale sort of a dream. Was this supposed to be sexual?  
  
— Oh, yup, she started undressing. Wait, was he naked too?! Wow, was this tower of fuck? Was he supposed to be happy? Pleased? He went and grabbed Naia and just softly kissed her. His eyes may have conveyed to her how much he had been thinking about her? Hoped so. She was such a cool teacher, and kind and friendly and she didn’t seem to always get mad at anyone. She wasn’t bossy, yet somehow was still a bit dominating. She smiled at him. He her. As they kissed, tongues tangling almost like the Rapunzel rope he growled and moaned. A bit too intensely. He went down and lapped at her clit and kissed her nether lips and she seemed slick and tasted nice.  
  
For a while, he was in her and she was squealing and crying in pleasure and that made him proud. He was so happy he was able to please her. Though, was this right? Was this something he wanted? She wanted? He was a bit puzzled. Should he be overthinking this? Wasn’t this a dream? Shouldn’t he just enjoy this? — Okay, wait a minute, Draugen was in this dream now?!  
  
And he was fucking both Naia and Draugen?! Wow, was this some sort of wonderful upgrade! He was pushing himself into Draugen and Naia as Draugen and Naia kissed each other and Draugen was squeezing tightly and giving some feathery touches on Naia’s breasts with his deft and lovely tentacles. She was moaning the loudest amongst them and it was a turn on to both him and Draugen. He felt like tag teaming with his buddy and so they both entered her and she was clawing at Draugen and him. Crying tears and sobbing out of how fucking good she was feeling.

Both he and Draugen kissed and licked her as her eyes went a bit out there with pleasure and she was half riding them. Then as they all came, he enjoyed her claws on him. It did not at all hurt him but the feel of it, digging into him, as she was crying and climaxing, was so incredibly good. He enjoyed how she loved how he fucked, and she was also happy with how Draugen performed. They began to lick and nibble her all over. And, after two minutes, pushed in again to give her another round of fucking her silly. They came again and again and again. All of them seemed so fucked out and sweaty, but he was loving it.

He was also loving that Naia enjoyed his body and was not only treating him as a nice ‘person.’ He sometimes felt like people only liked him as this nice Tyrant and nothing else. It was bugging him deep down. He wondered if Draugen only enjoyed him as a nice Tyrant too. But Naia’s looks told him she appreciated him. Dream Naia anyway. Perhaps, this was a big issue? Is this why he was feeling off? Naia’s hair was longer than it was in rea life. But less long as Rapunzel. The purples in her hair were so pretty. And her caramel skin was washing lovely with his grey. He enjoyed how warm and lovely and flushed that sweet skin looked. The redness glow of after-sex was illuminated on that skin and it looked perfect on her. He slowly sucked on her shoulder and gave her some deep kisses. Feeling the perfection of the moment.

And, as Slevin woke up, he felt it — how he had stained his sheets and knew had to do laundry. Everyone who were meant to wake up had seemingly woken. He knew Freyr was possibly stabilising in their pods and then was going to eat some food and go to the exercise room or outside to run laps. Then he would go to the library or stay in the room to study. Freyr woke up earliest. Sometimes, he beat Veles to it. Slevin was breathing in and out. Unfortunately, Veles was in the room and was writing a report on what they had been doing for the the few days. They kept regular journals still as mandated. Though it seemed in a month, their lives would change, and a new process of life would begin. They didn’t know what kind of life or what kind of change, but he knew it wasn’t eradication or any faraway posting. They needed new structures it was being said and so he was happy to be part of the new.

The scientists were adept in wanting to make new kinds of Tyrants or new batches and they also felt a restructuring of some organizational aspects was imminent. Most of the Tyrants educated in Arrkoth, may not stay in Arrkoth. There had been new talks on legal bills in the nations being talked about on how to integrate Tyrants into military bases or any private security details and how to care for them and how to live with them. Of course, the bill was a very controversial one. There had been many posts online already on this and some of it was obviously censored to Tyrants.

But, they got to know from their human peers. The anti-Tyrant and BOW coalition was a pro-human group and they had been posting on social media and their websites on how Tyrants were taking over and that soon humanity would be erased out from the life of the planet. Of course, some of their fears, seemed understandable if not always reasonable or able to measure with care and empathy. Tyrants were bioweapons who needed to be contained and mainstreaming them was a problem in general. However, others said they should just stay in facilities like Arrkoth, where they were already ‘at home’, cared for and knowing how to manage them.

The last two months, aside one class where they did a reading of a net article written in the 90s, after the devastation of Raccoon City, Naia had her classes cancelled. Slevin and Veles stayed many days in army encampments or bases and toured around and fought some BOWs with the BSAA and other types of military humans. Some of the weaponry was also taunted to them by some people who clearly did not like Tyrants. Their anti-Tyrants guns, more portable railguns and all. But mostly, they fought infected towns and also Lickers and other BOWs. There had been mutations in many places thanks to the A virus and remnants of C. Some BOWs were not even humans. They seemed to be animals or plants who had become feral due to lack of immunities. Many humans were naturally immune to Animality Virus and some of its variants, others got vaccinations — but not even Tyrants were 100% immune to it and they also needed to take shots for exposure. It was interesting to work with humans for a common threat.

There had been forest fires and outbreaks around some Mid-Western cities and some close to capital in the US and they were deployed to help with relief and aid as well. Many kids seemed to be interested in them as they passed towns and provided food and care. They stayed in converted motels, serving as military barracks to curb the infections and fires in those places. Some of the fires, were climate changes, others seemed to have been exacerbated by A-variant infections. One man was fused to two and a deer and became this weird ass BOW and they all had trouble chasing after this de-facto leader. The infected around A had some coordination and were faster than T-virus zombies.

Like Las Plagas infected, they all seemed to have a to-do list, of spreading infection and amassing food. Like G, they also made fleshberg nests in sewers or sometimes around abandoned buildings. They seemed to mutate further in them and you can see the hosts were no longer humans or animals but just some infected BOW. They did not have much sentience anymore. Only a need, to feed, rest and reproduce. They weren’t like Lickers or even more evolved BOW. Most of them, were just like parasites and viruses, only larger, so there wasn’t always a chance to reverse the process after a while. In early stages, up to Stage 2 or first half of 3, they could be saved. Albeit, many of them had to re-learn to speak and walk and do many basic level things. Most of their entire lives are changed, and they are usually registered as half-human and half-BOW, on the government scale. There had been many incidents of this and so the entire ecology and economy of the world was changing again.

Slevin felt very strange being around mourners, seeing rituals for burial and ceremonies for the dead and even getting attacked a few times by grieving people or protestors. Some of it was beyond him. As a Tyrant, he hadn’t had the chance to grieve for anyone let alone be in wakes or people being put in coffins or the sort. It seemed there were these human cultures devoted to the care and kindnesses to the dead. The concept seemed so interesting and fascinating! He did not know how he had not read much about the dead and decided he would research more and read more if he got back soon. He was paired with Veles in most places he went. Veles, even if he looked interested, did not talk to anyone, nor did he seem that affected when people threw rocks or spoiled food at them. He just threw some back and as they were under military jurisdiction and were somewhat termed as ‘non-citizens/non-persons’ he seemed to enjoy using that to his advantage. When someone complained, he merely grinned, “A gun can’t fire by itself.”

The paradox of him being a weapon in the flesh was made apparent. Of course, some people bitched about the Tyrant 089, he got a following, by one irate Youtuber. But it seemed, more people were seeing them also in the flesh. One army guy showed him that he was also trending on twitter once as the ‘Tyrant who was caught reading The Tempest” and there was a professor of well-known human university who had written a much celebrated post on it: “Caliban, when he reads his non-authorised Autobiography.” And, he had to admit — that seemed neat. He wanted to read the post when he had time.

They had just got back a week ago. Ivar and Innara apparently were still in the Raccoon City mission. The mission had been postponed due to them being recruited on a task force to also help some terrorists in Eastern Europe. They had gone there for over a month and were still working on the tactical support duty and protecting people from BOWs being used by those terrorists. Apparently, it was also a sample of the A-virus and some of the townspeople had been turned into zombies. It wasn’t a situation, which was looking great. He had skyped with Innara and they were having massive political changes in that part of the world too, not to mention, a re-election had been called. The current president was deemed unworthy of his seat and the nation was angry, saying America and Russia had been bullying them, after helping gain their independence from Svetlana almost 10 years ago. It seemed the Plagas chapter had re-emerged.

It was to be said that Svetlana’ Belikova’s followers, well former ones, had joined the new group. Svetlana herself, had Innara informed, will be ‘shipped’ to the US. They did not want her around in Europe anymore, saying she was a ‘cause’ or a ‘calalyst’ to their national problems. From easing down the tensions, they wanted to send her to the US. Also, Svetlana, she had changed a lot, as she had used Plagas-cells on herself, they needed more researchers to see if she could be saved. She did not look much different, still maintained her 50s age, thanks to her being a half-BOW, but she had loads of arthritic pains and could not always seem to stand the slightest weather changes without getting sick. Her immune system had become heavily compromised so she needed more expensive treatments and the regular taxpayer did not wish to keep her healthy or want their money to be used for her wellbeing. Gladly, some people in the States, having opposition but less, decided to study her condition. In it, she was afforded pain relief and more answers to her self0inflicted condition.

Archer was said to join them to bring back Svetlana B. Though Archer had been off-base as well. Touring in a nearby city to them, helping with re-planting vegetations after massive forest fires occurred and some infection of BOWs that had been culled down by the people and authorities of the region. Archer seemed to understand plants well. He was also good with wildlife. The researchers wanted detailed reports from him, what he had been doing in the area and what impact he has had. He had a lot of reports, Veles had enjoyed reading. One of them was him being trained by some Scouts of the fauna and flora of the place. Out of all of them, Archer seemed to have had a better time in all aspects. The people seemed less prejudiced towards him. The town was smaller almost akin to a village so his presence became an everyday phenomenon and he enjoyed talking to the townsfolk. Archer mentioned it was more akin to the towns who helped and formed a larger aspect of Arrkoth Facility.

Slevin and Veles had chores to do in those adjoining towns today. The Arrkoth towns were still developing. They helped sustain the facility and in return the protection and profits they received made the region stable. Most people in the nearby towns did well; they had affordable living and houses, jobs and security. They had one public school and one University and senior high school, which was privatised but getting scholarships and internships were available. Also, many of the children who passed school in the towns left to other cities to do higher education. Many did not come back. The three towns were mostly centred on farming and living in agriculture-based jobs, with fisheries and local wildlife research. There was less of Academia unless someone counted Arrkoth. Many people enjoyed living in major cities more. Some people chose to have a retirement home in one of the towns.

They had a retirement home in Azogues called Firm Oaks. Firm Oaks had been talked about recently as ‘abandonsville’ — people usually who retire into that home were usually childless, or their kids had just dropped them in ‘the middle of nowhere’ and left. They didn’t seem to want to spend much time with their parents. The parents there were either druggies, old tycoons whose kids inherited money and told them to sod off or retired military and service veterans who wanted someplace quiet and ‘familiar.’ Slevin knew a Raccoon City survivor there who had been transferred. He had been lucky to catch them as Firm Oaks was off limits to most BOWs. The older citizens used to get fearful of Tyrants. Some of them were ill and did not need anything taxing for them.

Still, outside the walls of the retirement home, the Tyrants could work even if they had restrictions. Even the security detail there did not have the Arrkoth knights unless necessary. Mostly, it was human security. Veles and Slevin had had taxing two months so they were told to work around the grounds, helping to plant produce and clean the coops of chickens and livestock. Firm Oaks had a smaller farm for the residents. They could tend to smaller animals and plant their own garden if they wanted. Arrkoth Tyrants kept the place clear of any Ivy Guardians or Licker colonies. Most of the times, they were kept out aside a few exceptions. The land had proper security details as it was a retirement home, with some wealthy investors. They were okay the land had a research facility nearby. And, the world was constantly changing. Most of Azogues was BOW free aside Tyrants so the deal was good rather than outside those towns where infections could happen. Not to mention, bio-terrorism.

As Slevin woke up, wanted to get changed out of his clothes, he saw Veles smiled, “You seem to be having a great dream.”  
  
“Oh, cram it.” Slevin annoyedly spoke making Veles chuckle. Slevin got in the nude, it was normal as Veles and Freyr had seen him naked. Modesty was not always a given in a Tyrant soldier’s life. They sometimes had to strip for tests and check-ups, so this was their kind of normal. Slevin was just happy Veles seemed engrossed with his work, as he bundled the spent sheets. He hadn’t seen Draugen face to face either for two months. He was beginning to miss one of his best friends. They were still friends and that was good. He knew, in some capacity, that Draugen was with Gresham. Some people knew, there were the rumours, but most people were also blissfully ignorant. The idea that one of their heads would be fucking the very first NE-v T Type Tyrant was not always gonna fly well with people. Not everyone liked Tyrants in that way. Even if they did, they sure as well would wanna hide it. It wasn’t ‘socially acceptable.’

Draugen had been on and off the facility from what he knew. He had been with Ivar and Innara. But he was told not to escort Svetlana. He was deemed too important for getting, a possibly infectious to Tyrants, ex-president over. He was one of the prides and joys of Arrkoth. Many Tyrants were rightfully jealous of Draugen. He had so many privileges seemingly to them. And, he enjoyed most facilities without much question or restrictions. Though, Slevin understood — Draugen was also very alone. He was the only NE-T v T Type and well, it was like he did not have anyone else like him. There had been talks of getting someone more like him. More Ne-v T Types, but that would take some time, even if they had started the project, they wouldn’t tell it to them. Some Tyrants had some anxieties of being replaced with ‘better’ models. There was no need to fan those tensions and concerns. Some discussed what it would mean to Draugen if he had more of his kind around, would it be good? Or, would it cause issues for him? Those were not known yet.

Still, the T-103 model, Tyrant R models and their Steels/Titans models were still in demand. NE-Ts and Hypnos were somewhat secondary. It may be harder to take care of NE-Ts and hider for them to blend in the general population because NE-Ts and Hypnos later models look more menacing. NE-Ts may have a more similar skin tone to many humans but they definitely did not have a human face. The parasite bonding on their faces could be ‘fixed’ per say but consumers liked those Tyrants to be menacing. It was always the advanced T-103s and Tyrant Ts, who got outfitted in many cities as security. Titans came second in that scope as they worked in larger open combat or to take out many other BOWs or humans. NE-T models, who were trained as assassins, like Nergel and Foe, were becoming extremely popular. Nergel and Foe had many missions lined up for them, alongside training some new recruits, humans and Tyrants.

He wondered what Nemesis had been doing. They had met up a couple of times before heading off. Nemesis was talking about how he heard of Nian Zhen coming ‘back from the dead’, taking some rehab time, so he wasn’t a horrible alcoholic anymore. Nian Zhen’s place was somewhat taken over by Dr. Frieda Byron. Slevin was happy to know Nian Zhen was recovering. His convalescence meant things were a bit in disarray in Arrkoth. Frieda was trying to put things in order but there was also a large gap over some of the stuff Nian Zhen had put off. She had take over his sessions with the new Eveline, who lived in the same floor as Naia, and had been bored as she had not been given much stuff to do.

Eveline had been having problems as of late. She hated staying in the facility and seemed to hate being a BOW, who looked so much more human than a Tyrant. She was quite severed from the Tyrant culture and as she was not an Ivy Guardian, she didn’t have to really spend time with much of the drones. After her job as regulatory Matriarch of the plant was done, she could go about doing what she wanted. She did study classes too, but she had her own private tutors and she had travelled to many countries before. Though, she was always regulated, because she was a BOW like them and not a human in the regular sense of the word. She did not seem to like Frieda gave her more work to do — well, she had to, Nian Zhen had been ignoring Eveline and so that meant there was a backlog in some things to do with Gerechtslinde. Apparently, she was supposed to help mating patterns with the tree and as she had not been doing that the tree had been having too much of her own mating choices; she wasn’t either breeding enough, breeding with the ‘wrong’ drones or not even finding adequate drones to be mated with. The scientists could use pheromones of their own but as they betted on their ‘studs’ they could not always be trusted. There had been some banning on scientists mating Gerechtslinde; now, it was mostly up to Eveline. And, she was rusty, to say one thing.

That meant she had gotten into many arguments with Frieda and both of them did not always see eye to eye. Not to mention, Eveline, though she enjoyed Frieda’s company and liked Frieda being somewhat in charge, had too many arguments with one Sybil Francine Spencer. Most people by now knew she was somehow a distant relative of the Spencer, and it did not always make her job easy. Many discredited her work because she came from Oswald’s lineage. And many did not seem to like her in general.

They had sympathy on her, especially after the ‘Abel incident’ (it had a name now even Tyrants knew) but they could also be damning of her. Eveline and Sybil did not get along at all. Eveline did not think Sybil, a new scientist, to be someone of any great importance. Sybil, though Eveline (rightfully so) as an over privileged brat who always been catered for thus knew not how to really empathise with others. Their constant clashes were talked about by many people and it was a constant headache to Frieda. Who was stuck with them. Askafroa, aka Bulbs, made things better. He seemed to have a particularly good temperament. A better one than Sybil and Eveline. He was mostly calm and reacted when he felt it was safe too. Of course, that lack of reactions was a sign of trauma and Frieda was working around the clock, helping him with therapy and other necessities.

Slevin hadn’t had time to also meet Nian Zhen. Until recently, he had not even thought much on Naia. Being back home had allowed him some thoughts on her. Yes, he was still somewhat attracted to her. He had met more pretty people on his journeys around. Yet, he did find comfort in Naia and how she was as a person. He hadn’t talked to Sybil. Apparently, she did not seem to like Tyrants at all. After what happened in the ‘Abel Incident’, it seemed she was projecting all her issues to be caused by Tyrants. Of course, this did not make her fond to Tyrants either. Who snickered as she walked past and attempted to taunt her — they had their ways without getting caught. He did not like her disliking Tyrants, but Slevin felt a bit bad for Sybil.

It had been around 3-4 months since they had arrived in Arrkoth and Sybil did not seem to have any friends. She was seen by herself mostly in cafeterias. She had attempted to join once a group full of people who were talking. They had stopped talking a lot when she sat down and responded to her politely. But the tension had been so thick, Freyr had seen, that he could punch it. And as they finished their meals, they left. No one really asked if Sybil had finished or if she was doing anything. They seemed to consider her not so important. Sybil had looked visibly wounded. Anyone could see she also felt humiliated.

Ever since then, she had avoided crowds and kept mostly to herself. She had grown quieter and looked sad most of the time.

The only person who did sometimes talk to her had been Amrit Sarkar. That hotshot who had, after last month, been demoted. He had caused some research datasets to be badly written, it was an accident, and Gresham did not like getting incomplete data. He had been temporarily put on a small room group, outside of the Tyrion laboratory, assessing data sets for Lickers and pretty much was put on census duty. This was kinda a big setback for a Masters in Neuroscience. But Sarkar, though sad, did keep on doing his work. It seemed Sybil talked less with him, even if she felt alone, as he has been closer friends with Abel. Abel had taken over most of Amrit’s work and he wasn’t particularly happy about it. They had been thinking of reinstating Amrit, as he was not bad enough to fire, yet he seemed to have to get back in Gresham’s good graces.

Also, it was a different kind of detail for Abel to make datasets in neuroscience, when he was a MA in molecular genetics. He was supposed to be working with Amrit, not doing the twice amount of work. Due to Nian Zhen leaving for a bit to attend rehab (he was still in Arrkoth but had been away), there was not much to do about the lack of proper organizational structure. They still had the head doctors more or less active so the entire multi-laboratories were more or less thriving even if some of their capacities had one or two setbacks.

Well, Slevin had been getting updates from mostly everyone he knew. He had been away and most people did not mind catching him up to speed. The only person who had stayed mostly in the facility, but helped along with Archer, had been Freyr. Freyr had been mostly in the facility and he had pretty much the room all to himself when Veles and Slevin had been away. He was a good-hearted Tyrant who actually kept their sides in order. Well, he touched less of Draugen’s stuff as Draugen would kinda be too messy. Nor else, everyone had been away or busy in the facility. No one had told him they had wanted to meet of as of yet, even if he and Veles had been back a week, because no one has been having a free time enough. Nian Zhen absence meant more work to do and also some people had been told to help prepare for the arrival of Svetlana and help stabilise those new terrorist threats in Eastern Europe.

He had a text from Naia, and he had texted her back saying he was hoping they could meet soon and catch up. She had been incredibly happy and talked about how she was possibly dating Leon Kennedy. This was kind of a surprise, but he had been gone for two months. He had told Veles and he had just shrugged, though he looked a bit disappointed that she was dating. It was a bit suspect but then again, Veles possibly had his reasons. Slevin was a bit disappointed too. He had wanted to tell Naia he somewhat liked her. Aside Leon being super handsome and a human, he genuinely wondered how Naia and he clicked. Did they have similar interests? Did they have similar goals in life?

He usually heard human long-term dating consisted of that. And, well, with Tyrants, it somewhat worked like that too. It was hard to have longer plans when you were a BOW but Tyrants could couple if they felt they had the best ‘vibe’ and could understand each other with a deep comfort. Usually, long-term dating Tyrants either survive together or don’t. One of them might die or they just feel they wanna be open and stopped being monogamous. Slevin, despite being called ‘nice’, hadn’t had anyone really wish to be long-term partners with him. He had thought at one point Draugen would ask. And, he wouldn’t lie, he had been somewhat affected that Draugen chose Gresham over him. He knew that Gresham would not care for Draugen like him, but, maybe Draugen had his reasons. After all, sometimes, friends worked better as friends and nothing more and less.

He knew Innara had loved Nian Zhen. He heard Nian Zhen had recently told Innara, despite how honoured he was of his feelings, he did not feel the same way and was not in the right frame of mind to actually be with anyone. Innara’s optimism helped him through, what others who really knew him, did see as heartbreak. He had been so deeply into Nian Zhen. Innara had once cried to him drunk saying how unfair it was — to love someone so deeply and yet not get a response to it. Slevin knew the feeling. Part of it was with Draugen. And he had had people he had liked before, some humans. Like Innara, he had faced the torment in being a good friend and nothing more. Though he learned, and told Innara this: “We love people because we want the best for them.If we always wanted something in return, it would not be fair on them, or us.”  
  
Innara seemed to think on it. He seemed in better moods. But at times, anyone could see, he was somewhat sad on it. What most people didn’t suspect? Was that Vanessa wanted to date Nian Zhen. She seemed to have become ‘charmed’ by his sadness and depression. Or, something like that. She said, he had more depth to him, which was true, she had not thought of him more than a cold scientist. Now, hearing why he was such a drunk and in rehab, made her chase him around, much to the annoyance of many people, including Nian Zhen. Vanessa had not been employed much into battle. One of the reasons she was kept ‘off the grid’ was because she slept with a mafia boss who was killed. His wife found out his mistress was a tall, lithe and muscular,Titan Tyrant. The fallout was that his wife was so livid — she did not know what was worse? Him having many mistresses or one, who happened to be a BOW.

Vanessa had been told to stop his operations and she had — by seducing him as well as breaking some chains in command and taking out some local drug cartels. Regardless of how sloth like she acted, she was more than an efficient Tyrant through and through. She said it was after she left him, perhaps unprotected, well, he had been killed. She had been sorry he died but no one exactly knew why she left him. She said: “I am a Tyrant. How could I stay with him, forever? There was an expiry date on that affair. But! I am glad Arrkoth let me keep some of the stuff he actually bought me!” It was better in her hands. Returning it would make that angry wife become angrier and maybe even make Arrkoth an enemy.

Slevin put the laundry basket down and told Veles, “I have some time today, I am gonna spend the whole day just walking around the facility. I mean at night I may just go to a veranda and enjoy the night air. Wanna come with?”

“Maybe.” Veles looked at him with a smile, “Did you have a date with Naia today?”  
  
“It’s not a date. I asked if she wanted to meet and she said ‘yes’, besides, she seemed to have honestly missed all of us. She had been making some friends but most of the time, she seemed to be spending time with Nian Zhen when he is allowed visitors in the day. Or, Leon. She doesn’t have an apartment anymore outside of Arrkoth, so she doesn’t have anywhere to stay back in the city she was from. She said she could crash in Alexa’s house, her bestie, but she had a small fight with Alexa when we were away. But they aren’t completely cold yet. And her older sister, she lives in the city, with her wife. Though, Naia hasn’t gone back. And, you know Arrkoth, it discourages going outside much.” Slevin had rubbed his head on the ‘date’ thing but he was mostly just talking as he wrapped a towel. “I am going to the showers. If you are not busy with reports, maybe we should hang later.”

“Yeah, I am glad we have the time to.” Veles smiled slightly, “It has been interesting when we had been away. So many things had been happening around Arrkoth and the world. What do you think?” he paused, “About Svetlana Belikova coming over?”  
  
“Oh the media will have a field day but seeing most Arrkoth scientists are not allowed to talk much to the press and that it is supposed to have less reportage to make people less inquisitive, I don’t think it will go bad. I think many people here wanna avoid her anyway. Mostly Tyrants, she had had this weird plagas exposure on her. We don’t know what we might contract from her. Humans seem less susceptible, ironically, as the plagas in her, does not seem to ‘favour’ humans much. Though, I wonder, what she will be like.”  
  
“She seems to have lost a lot of her cool exterior.” Veles tsked, “The Plagas seems to makje her get angry more quickly and she gets aggressive super quick. She also has bad insomnia, bad health in general, developed more anxiety and stress, some say she may even develop a proximity disease due to her closeness to a BOW, such as a Plagas, for such a long time. Yeah, it isn’t pretty Arrkoth is doubling up security. Some politicians were against her coming over. Understandably, she had caused so many problems in her nation. She was one of the reasons, it had a civil war for the longest time, and she was the reason so many people died. Her nation had a great unrest due to her. Though some people stated, she forgoing power by the end and surrendering was tolerable. Yes, the Russians and our human people, didn’t give much of a choice. But it was somewhat a losing battle from the beginning when the Plagas became used in their civil war. Well, she would be interesting to meet. I never met a dethroned monarch before.”

“Yeah, if she wants to meet us. To her, we are just walking, talking weapons. I heard she was one of the people to use the early iterations of Steel/Titan Tyrants in battle. Those guys were silent, Bash peeps first and ask questions later kind of guys, who also could turn Super in a drop of a bomb. I heard Leon had to fight three of them as she procured around three to four to get rid of the so-called rebels during her country’s civil war. So, we would just be upgraded Steel Tyrants to her. She may even hate us.” Slevin spoke as he was going out,

“We are outside a cell, and I know they won’t allow her to move without security, and she is in a cell, and we can move around pretty freely. I would say she would envy that. Though, since around I think 2011, she had been imprisoned. They didn’t execute her; they was just left in a small prison. They would have given her the dignity of a house arrest. For several months, that did happen. Until, her Plagas started getting worse. And, it would cause her more chances of death to remove it. So, she was kept mostly in isolation. Limited computer use and things like that.” Slevin paused a bit, “I guess Arrkoth would be some change. Who knows? Maybe she may get a bit better. But, I know she won’t ever be fully human in the traditional sense. But I think she knew that when she took that altered plagas in her to become a president and have a lot of power.”

* * *

Naia had not spoken to Nemesis. She understood but a part of her felt somewhat betrayed that he decided to just hang out with Jill and not talk to her for a long time. Meeting him again when she was supposed to meet Slevin, well, that was somewhat odd. Nemesis had come to the café following her as he had called out to her, figuring she hadn’t heard. Or, he had some feeling she wasn’t.

There was an awkward silence.

“You are avoiding me?”  
“Yes.”  
“Why?”  
“Well, I can ask you the same.”  
“I didn’t mean to.”  
“How can I be sure of that?”  
  
“You know, I had fun with you, you are my friend.”

“Am I really your friend, Nemesis?” Naia looked a bit wounded, “I gave you my cell when we first met and we talked and I genuinely thought, we were friends. But friends don’t just stop talking, and then meet out of the blue. I mean they can. But then we have to be besties.”

“Well, thanks for your sacred artefact of the phone.” Nemesis looked on annoyed.

“Now, don’t patronise me.”  
  
“Well, aren;’t you?”

“No.”

Nemesis got a bit annoyed for a bit andff growled and she looked a bit frightened but also scowled back at him. They both had fire in their eyes.

“I know I should have talked to you sooner!” Nemesis yelled out, “But I am finally dating Jill and I got caught up in her. I been in love with her for 20 years and I have no idea how it could just work out. I just…” Nemesis calmed down, and Naia softened her gaze, “I don’t know anything about friendship, Naia. I don’t know, really, how to communicate and keep a lot of things in check. I am a Tyrant. I wasn’t…” he looked a bit ashamed, “I just didn’t know how to balance it. And, I just wanted to stay with Jill. Like, how I dreamed. I guess, I was being silly. Immature, as you humans would say. But for the longest time, it had only been just me and her. I never thought it would have others. I know it’s no excuse. But. Can you forgive me?”

“I should have said something too. I am sorry. I just…I thought you didn’t need me anymore.” Naia looked sad.

Nemesis looked so alarmed, “No, Naia.” He went up and held her shoulders, making her jump a bit, but he didn’t care as he brought their faces closer, “Naia, you are my friend. Of course, I would need you. Besides, I go to your class. I definitely need you to pass that as well.:  
  
Naia began to laugh at the last line. Nemesis smiled and before he knew it, he hugged her. And that feeling of being found and being at home washed over him. Yes, he had a sense of belonging, and more so, a history with her, which no one could replace. But Naia seemed to always get him as a friend. As someone, who wasn’t a villain. As not just some bioweapon. The fact they had a small argument was indicative of that.

They sat down, “I am waiting for Slevin.”

“He and the others seem to be very busy with missions.” Nemesis looked on and seemed to also be thinking something.

“Are you jealous?” Naia asked carefully.

“A bit. Not so much. I don’t want to fight in burnt out cities. Raccoon City gonna stay with me for a life time.” Nemesis answered.

“Nemesis, you been playing hookey. Aren’t you supposed to be doing school work?” Naia asked, “You didn’t meet me for around two months. I hope you had some work done. Wagner said you did.”

“Yeah, there was no way, I was not paying attention to the lesson plans you two made.” Nemesis grinned.

“Good, I hope we get to read _Jane Eyre_ soon. I think you are ready to tackle that. And, believe it or not, the only classes I been having is to teach Askafroa. You know Bulbs. He is less shy now. But apparently, he enjoys the quiet of our classrooms as Eveline and this girl, named Sybil Spencer, one of Spencer of Umbrella’s relatives, seem to always fight and so he rather stay away from them. I been talking to Dr Axton, you know, Frieda. And we have become pals. She been pissed at Eveline and Sybil. But, she knows she had asked to work with Askafroa, and because she knows Byron is watching closer, after she challenged her and Kensley, so she can’t really say much until those guys reach some melting point.” Naia looked concerned, “I think it is a lot of work. I wanted to help her out and she says I am because I been dealing with Aska.”  
  
Nemesis looked uncomfortable, “Dr Yvonne Byron, kinda creeps me out.” Nemesis went into a raspy whisper, “I woke up one and saw she was taking measurements of my body. This happened recently, I didn’t tell Jill. But she was also looking at my…” Nemesis actually blushed a bit, “I mean I have scientists look at it before. But she seemed to have been wondering how my thing has been doing as I am now with Jill. Well, as you know, she is a facility head. I just looked at her and gave her the silent treatment. I mean, what could I do? I just looked away. I think Lewis saw and he also looked incapable to telling her anything as she was the head boss.”

“You should tell Jill.” Naia, forgetting everything that had transpired some moments ago, and what had happened in two months, held his hand, and Nemesis’s look softened considerable, “What she did was wrong. You should tell her to wait, until you were awake. What she did borders on a form of sexual harassment. I think you can tell Draugen and he can tell Gresham. You have to. At least, even if she has equal power to Gresham, she would not wanna piss him off.” 

“I later, did tell her, don’t worry. And she just smiled at me. She seemed to think it was okay. She liked what she called the ‘fire in me’ to tell her something. But she seemed super weird. I mean, when you see her, I don’t think, well, you know, _know_.”

“Most people say she falls in the eccentric or weird category. But I think some people genuinely did concerned about her. Though, her looks, always seemed to get people. Not to mention, her high intelligence and her dedication to her work. Everyone says, she is the pinnacle of meritocracy and success. She came from, what we humans call, ‘nothing.’ Meaning she didn’t seem to have many connections and people she knew. But she landed in Arrkoth. I think she once had an audience with Oswald E. Spencer. Even met with Wesker, once upon a time, Albert Wesker. She also met the other Wesker. But she seemed to be younger then. Many people in BU and Umbrella, had family working there. Or, had some affiliations. If she had some connections, she doesn’t seem to flaunt them.” Naia recounted to Nemesis, what she knew. It wasn’t a lot. No one ever knew much about Dr. Yvonne Byron, like Dr. Helen Kensley, she seemed secretive. Howeverm Kensely had a kid, she even had a divorced husband who sometimes came to meet her. Or, as she heard, he keeps saying, ‘more like separated.’

If Byron had a family, well, there was not much known about them. A hacker was caught once in Arrkoth two years ago, by Nian Zhen and Helen Kensely, trying to get some encrypted access into Byron’s files. It just had one file, it was rumoured, and Naia only knew this, as Nian Zhen had told her frankly told her, when they were alone, and no one was there to listen and in a blind sport for surveillance. The Hacker quit himself, stating he and his colleague, had found something, but he literally got scared by something. So, he quit. When asked what by Wagner: he simply said, he found one file titled ‘Yvonne’ and there was a few nursery rhymes and a bunch of dolls in a room and someone singing eerily. It seemed like a young girl, and she was brushing a doll’s hair.”

“But you couldn’t see her face and you wondered what was happening. There was another video linked with that, but he could not access it. He could only see weird little candles and dolls and there was the odd singing. Nian Zhen said, Naia should be careful who to share this information with and hopefully she did not speak to others on it. The girl was in silhouette and you could not see her. Even if the young girl was Yvonne Byron, what were they recording? What was the reason there was this weird file on her? The hacker was super scared by something they did not reveal. He had said his colleague linked something and ever since then he could not sleep and decided to leave Arrkoth. He was obviously blacklisted from working with many research labs. Nian Zhen stated BU kept some tabs on him and he left the US a year ago and started working again in Europe in a branch of science not affiliated with BU.

“But that strange singing gave him nightmares. He said to me, there was something about it that scared the shit out of him about how the young girl was singing and it was related, as his colleague and friend said, to something else. And, he wouldn’t tell me what, it just gave him nightmares.” Nian Zhen had spoken, “Frankly, ever since I heard that song, he sang it to me, and I got chills. I kept away a bit from Byron after that. I think she sensed it and did confront me about it once. We talked a bit. But there was an unease in me. I had a hard time getting rid of it. If the singing little girl was Yvonne, how is there a recording of her on file? Why would they only have that about her? The funny thing is, Gresham genuinely also seemed to have no idea where and how she came about. He said to me, when he was getting into Arrkoth, and changing hands with the old directors, around eight years ago, they also introduced her as one of the early sign-ups and said she had been working almost as an assistant head from intern from a while. And, he didn’t get into it, when he did try to snoop, well, he knows I know it is his nature, he seemed to also find her oddly without much of a background, aside a high-end education. She was also for a time, a ward of the state. That is all he found. And, he said, Yvonne did such good work, he for once, did not care much about the details. I don’t Gresham is entirely truthful on letting it go but I do trust he found less on her.”

Nemesis listened in intently as Naia recollected what Nian Zhen had stated to her, “But,” Nemesis finally spoke after the pause, “Is this normal? For humans I mean?”

“No, it is not. It is very strange and sometimes I also get some creepy feelings from her. My instinct, I don’t know, feels a bit on alarm, when she is around. I don’t know, why. But it only happens at times. When I feel she is observing me for a while. I don’t know, her look changes a bit from ‘cool’ to — to ‘something else’ and I can’t put a finger on what that ‘something else’ is and I don’t need to interact with her much. I stay away.” Then she looked again a bit angry, “But I don’t like she was being an asshat to you.”

“Well, she did get some information out of my downtown parts, as Lewis sometimes calls it, so she kind of stopped talking to me. I don’t know. But I have some idea what you mean. She looks at you, in a way, in a way, a Tyrant is supposed to look at targets. I don’t think I have ever seen a human look like that. I remember seeing Nikolai, that bastard as Jill said, who kept on using me and Jill as a ‘money tree’ as Jill also put it. He sometimes had a similar sort of look but not as close. I don’t think I have always seen Tyrants look the same way as Yvonne Byron does but that is interesting. That she looks like this in such a way and is supposed to be a human.” Nemesis’s interest was piqued but then he was like, “If she is what you humans say, ‘crazy’, I think she will one day let slip. Jill tells me psychopathic people also make mistakes. She hunted down some when she was STARS. Then she kinda is hard on herself, her Chief Irons was apparently, a serial killer. And, she didn’t know about it until later. I think that also affected her. To know she worked under someone as sick and twisted as him. But it made more sense to her now, why Irons refused to cooperate with her investigations when Wesker went AWOL. She tells me she was young and inexperienced and the idea of Irons, being more than some corrupt official and also well someone who was involved in so much more.”

“I wonder if Yvonne Byron is a serial killer.” Naia says it absentmindedly, Nemesis gives a look with his eye, “I mean…” Naia looks at him, “I know that sounded farfetched. She may be some sort of agent or something. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was working undercover for some other agency.”

“Well, she doesn’t smell of blood. Regular hospital equipment. Though Jill told me when she found NEST 2 she was so shocked that no one saw that underneath. Or, she came to the conclusion that anyone else was paid off. Some of the nurses were skeptical and questioning of the people they worked under. I don’t understand these human needs for secrets at times. Like all these classified researches and such. Even me. I was supposed to be a test run and wipe out STARS because they blew up the first prototype Tyrant and well Spencer mansion. And realising the STARS team was adamantly after Wesker and Umbrella, they decided to teach them a lesson with me. And to well, hush them up. I think they underestimated Jill a lot as a person. She was too determined. I don’t think they knew who they were fucking with, when they fucked with STARS.” Nemesis had to chuckle in this.

Naia felt a slight envy when he talked so proudly about Jill. She didn’t know if anyone had ever talked about her in that manner. With a sense of pride. But it was quiet spectacular, to have a Tyrant, a powerful being, talk so with pride of you. She realised Jill was lucky because Nemesis definitely respected, admired and valued her.

“I think all the STARS members had something to offer. I would have liked to fight Chris Redfield. Jill tells me, he is missing. He was once one of the top STARS agents and well, he was part of the BSAA. Though no one knows where he is now. There aren’t many leads and Jill worries about him. I can see they have a history and bond I can’t really compete with.” Nemesis looked a bit sad when he said this, “Jill says, ‘Chris saw my better days’, I think she means. When she was more happier being a STARS member. When she felt she was helping people and not chasing after conspiracies and well, being tortured and all.” Nemesis really turned sad at this, “I know I shouldn’t talk about this. But Jill has been through a lot. I think some of it is my fault. Her body changed a bit when I infected her, and she became part with that P30 parasite. But she tells me, in a way, I saved her.

“Nor else, she would have died and she would have become a zombie, another fate she hated, even if under P30 seemed worse. She is glad, she says, most days she is more than glad she made it and is alive. She went back to duty in the BSAA. But she was very much traumatised after what happened with Wesker. There were days, it was bad. I think she mentions…some things he did with her…” At this, Nemesis clenched his fists and one of his grips on the table, well, the wood was sturdy for Tyrants, nor else it would have snapped, “She says she was sometimes awake for it. And, he seemed to blackmail her a lot with her friends and allies. She said she was happy when Chris and Sheva blew him up with those rocket launchers. And for good measure, she fired a third at him, while they were flying away. Though she didn’t know how to make sense of her life after that. I asked about Carlos Oliveira and she said, he got married to this lady named Beatrice. She wanted to talk to him but it seemed she wanted him to be happy and not bring her baggage to him. I feel useless at times.” Nemesis sighed, “All this time, Jill has been living life. And I been in a coma, dreaming about Raccoon City, her and just those things and escaping and the towns we saw while we were escaping Raccoon City being blown to burnt cinders. I don’t know what to think about her life. It seemed so has happened without me. And she was alone. And, now, sometimes she still seems alone. At times, I am wondering. How are we working? Is she happy with me?”

“She did talk to me at times, while you weren’t.” Naia held his hand, “She is happy with her. She really thinks you get her. Though she told me, she didn’t mind if I told you any of this, she did say so, she does think she is, well, still figuring herself out. She still had to get some chekups done. She had such a long exposure to P30. She was always in and out of consciousness and it was like somnambulism. She says she wants to feel more from that time. And, she doesn’t know why…but some things feel missing. But she is happy she isn’t alone. She has always been afraid to go out and mix with people. She does not know how to say to people what she is as she told me. She says she feels ‘human’ but…she just doesn’t know what that means anymore to her. Though she is getting there with you.” Naia smiled at him, “You know, you are a blessing to her, right? You are being there for her and she knows you are not alone.” She let go off his hand and just smiled at him. “Don’t forget she is there for you as well. You guys are helping each other out in some deeply, personal things. And, that is what counts.”  
  
Nemesis smiled and nodded. Naia maybe right. What he had with Jill, right now, was healing for both of them. And, that mattered a lot. Soon, the almost empty café was graced with Slevin, he was happy Nemesis was there too.  
  
He started to talk about the things he had being to the rapt attentions of Nemesis and Naia. The three of them were in true comfort with each other. As if, they had never had a pause. So, their friendship had gotten stronger. And the way they looked at each other proved they all held each other with significant care and meaning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, yay! done with the chapter! I hope you guys liked it! The world Arrkoth exists in is changing. Well, some of those changes can be daunting. Others may be great for many of the characters. But I really wanted the world they lived in to have to adapt to new things. Well, I am think what about Chris in RE8 and Ethan Winters in general. I know Chris in my story will be AWOL for some time. I wonder what happens in RE8 as he seems a bit darker and that is a good thing to discuss. Even if he is still a hero, you can see he is a more jaded individual so I am gonna explore that a bit more.


	16. The Sinister Sweet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The reveal in this chapter was something I been planning since the inception of this story. I wanted the readers to know and well, not the characters. And there is some complexity with that. I wanted it to be a bit unexpected. So, I hope it was. Also I dedicate this chapter to my friend Panic <3 Thanks for reading all this time buddy!
> 
> ALSO WARNING THIS CHAPTER HAS PSYCHOLOGICAL ISSUES, NECROPHILLIC STUFF, ABUSE, SEXUAL ABUSE, SELF-HATE, TRAUMA AND MURDER MENTIONS AND GRAPHIC CONTENT

**The Sinister Sweet**

There was a deliciousness in killing. Would she call it murder? No. Murder brought out ethics and she was not one for moral tidings. She had never been. As a child, she did not get bullies nor the bullied. The hurt was so transitory. So, finite. The scope liminal and not at all perfect. For she craved a perfection in what she engaged with. As a child, she enjoyed numbers and stories. Though fairy tales, did not interest her.

She asked her teacher once, why the princess would not die? For surely, someone needing to be saved, they would be better off dead. This was something her teachers found problematic. Uncertain. She said she had read _The Merchant of Venice_ , and the quality of mercy her mother had told her had been disappointing. Her teachers stated that she needed to be _older_ to understand the significance. She did not care. What they lacked to understand was she had never really cared. Mercy, to her, meant one was weak. One needed mercy when they were weak, and one wanted mercy when they had attachments. She did not find attachments to be interesting or necessary.

When she killed her father, she knew she was disappointed in him. He had been unhappy she was mixing with ‘that lot.’ He meant the ‘wealthy’ or the rich. She had found a taste of luxury, he had said. Would forget her roots and would not come back to them. She would marry someone who would wealthy but unkind and cruel. Her father wanted her to do the right thing. Or so it seemed. He wanted to take care of her, so she could be married off to a middle-aged rich dude, who was conservative and would offer her family wealth. He wanted her to be humble and passive, obedient, and decadent.

When she was 10, she drugged him and slowly watched him die. Making sure her mother was away. Her mother had wept so much. Changed towns. Wanted to get away from the poverty and the like, as she used to say. She could see her mother was like one of those aging ‘starlets’ — pretty but kinda dumb. Naïve almost to her childish gaze. Someone who wanted to work well in the diner and provide for her. She did not mind though. 

She had pinned down bullies twice her size by stabbing them. She was feared wherever she went. The small, quiet child, who asked strange questions but overall seemed to be an exceptional student. But she had learned the hard way that exceptions did not matter, and meritocracy would get her nowhere. She knew this when the first prize to the science fair in the school was given to the rich girl and not her. Who, she half-drowned in the girl’s bathroom as revenge and made her learn fear.

But fear was something that needed a better stage and a better audience. When that wealthy man came to the diner of nowhere, his car stuck and waiting on a repair, she knew she was striking gold. She made her mother tend to him in front of her. He seemed drunk and lonely. In need of a woman, as some would say. And, he did marry her mother and soon her mother was one of those bored housewives but she got into private school. There in that all-girls school, she terrorized people, slept with teachers and students alike of all genders (when boys visited) and carved out a place for herself.

Though it was when she was reading of Umbrella’s dark days, she had an idea. She was seventeen when she slept with Gresham’s father. Oh no, she had already got in. Umbrella’s last bid before bankruptcy has been to give a small workshop to talented minds of the future, to evade their consequences. She was intrigued. She wondered why Umbrella had been so reckless. She had asked the right questions and then, when shares were being liquidated and all, she worked with Spencer’s existing family members. She had met Oswald Spencer, who to her, seemed some dried-out tycoon.

She had left her mother and her stepfather. Cut ties with them. By that time, her stepfather had started to fear her as she had vivisected the cat, he had gotten her and her mother, pregnant again, decided it was best to let her go. She had been a marker of her past, also an odd one. Perhaps, by that time, she had begun to realise, she had killed her father and it was best to not push her any further. They would have to let go as someone they once knew. Strangers were best understood with distance.

Yvonne Byron only kept the name her birth father had gave her. Because she liked there was a poet named Byron too. And she felt secure in its trajectory. A form of greatness she had always wanted. This was the reason she had when sleeping with Alaric Gresham’s father. She wanted to toy with him, and she did and Gresham, perhaps knowing this, respected her more for it. After all, he did not really care about his family.

Yvonne had been interested in Tyrants. These cold and distant killing machines who caused so much havoc around the world. She had read released testimonies about sightings and encounters of T-103 models. Many had died and most did not escape them when they were deployed in Raccoon City to kill police members and survivors so the T Outbreak would be kept a secret. She found them fascinating. Though, she also was irked by their lack of autonomy. There was no fun they had, at the beginning, limited intelligences. Only savage and ruthless as they had been commanded, programmed, to be. Where was the fun in that? There seemed no fun in it.

During the time, she was growing up with her stepfather, where he was wealthy in a small town but with connections, there had been disappearances. They had lived close to Nevada, so the police at first suspected wild animals had got to them. It was when one of the victims, male, age 22, was found missing, half decapitated and missing some of his personal items, they knew they had a killer. Some detectives realised this was a serial killer. They had seen some patterns, seemingly not the same but coordinated enough to show some agenda, a modus operandi. Some may have been sick to their stomachs knowing there was a joy in the murders. Some alienated sense of glee, to snuff out life, to make someone die.

What they never would have suspected was these were the killings of a semi-bored teenage girl who just liked killing people, either she liked or disliked. She had killed some of her peers too and they always caught the wrong guy. The keyword here was ‘guy’ — she used sexism to the fullest. People never suspected her to get the upper hands on girls and boys, who seemed larger than her and also more strong. The first girl she killed was half an accident. She had tried to kiss her, and the girl panicked and said she ‘was not like that’ (well, that was a BIG lie) and she had been trying to get away. Saying they shouldn’t. When she convinced her there was a rage in her.

Why should this girl deny herself? Why was she denying her? Without pause, they were in the kitchen, and she just stabbed her multiple times. The longest time, she made a shrine for the girl and brought flowers to her dead body and talked to her. Enjoying there would be no dissenting voice or reluctance. She never had sex with corpses. But the thought did sometimes come to her mind. She had only ever kissed the girl’s corpse. And then, when she started to smell, threw her out in the landfill. For many years, she kept a finger of hers, the one ring finger and she eventually threw it out as well. She had outgrown her and decided to go after other people.

She knew her infatuations would not linger. And she was okay with it. There had been only a few people who were able to hold her interest for long. For a while, she had fancied Alaric Gresham. She thought him quixotic and unpredictable. Something, she did like. He would do crazy things. She hadn’t told him much about herself. And his father made sure most of her records were covered. So, she lived with the peace of his unknowing. Oh, she knew he would have the bad habit of investigating on her. But this is where being poor once had its benefits. No one cared about her for a time. She was nowhere USA from nowhere USA. So, she avoided most detection. She was happier when no one knew about her and the happiest when she knew she could get away with things

Initially, her interest in Tyrants was all it took. She knew their savage nature may attract others. She knew Gresham was always interested in them since he was a boy and was hoping others with a lot of interest would also be interested. She was not wrong. At first, people had a tendency to look at Tyrants as what they were: bio-organic weapons deployed to kill. Kill with precision, stalk with precision, take orders with precision — when she found out about Nemesis being alive, she was very impressed how the parasite, Astarte, took great pains in keeping some of his fragments and cells alive, and travelled all this way to ‘report back.’

She knew in some ways Astarte, The Alpha Parasite, wanted to save Nemesis. He had outgrown his size, his weight mass, his whole structure, when that acid was dumped on him. He was in pain and all he was now was some sort of weird predatory flower. In that stage, all Nemesis wanted seemed to have been oblivion. All he wanted to do was _finally_ **kill** Jill Valentine. Of course, there was anger. This was, what? Some 5’3 woman in her twenties, always running away from him due to something or the other. It was strange. The one time he stabbed her with his ‘venom’ he thought it would be over. Yvonne spent most of her time in in the beginning to learn stuff about Nemesis and his parasite, Astarte.

He went out of his way to go and _consume_. Nemesis ate the raw meat in the slaughterhouse. He was tired and he wanted to gorge on the beef there — the rawness of it made him so happy. He was finally getting **satiated**. But a small part of him, this is what Yvonne detected, was _unhappy_. He had mutated and was no longer humanoid. He was now an animal like beast, and he was not too pleased on it. What was happening? Something, Astarte deeply attempted to _hide_ it, but NOT from Yvonne. She got it. Astarte noticed she would take information, when Nemesis was under, and she would not let anyone else see it. She kept it in her file. What she found pleased her and Astarte, the parasite, got her parasite ‘gut’ reaction, not to trust her. But she could not always convey this to Nemesis.

Yvonne found out Nemesis almost had the animalistic urge to **mate**. He went back in hopes of **fucking** Jill Valentine. He wanted to cream in her and wanted her to **accept** him. A part of him running around in that clocktower was him showing off to Jill. His commands to kill Jill were also being overridden by his insatiable need to _impress_ her. The boy, Yvonne licked her lips as she realised this, was _smitten_ to Jill. After all, it seemed unlike with other Tyrants, who had some of their sexual urges ‘suppressed’, (they already knew any kind of castration would impede growth it seems of muscles and essential behaviours), it was hard to do this with Nemesis. Because Nemesis had his alpha parasite, who helped him retain a lot of his awareness and intelligence. The parasite made him in tune with himself more. The downside to this? He felt more pain than any of the T-103s. That is why he evolved faster. He became unstable. A way to suppress pain was to adapt to it. And so, his body molded again and again to try to adapt to the pains of him being a patchwork Tyrant. The upside? He always seemed to know more about himself. Always more aware.

And, for some reason. He picked on Jill as a _female_. As someone who was attractive. Whose proximity and warmth had begun to affect him. Her resilience. Her need to NEVER back down. To face up to him. As a challenge. It **excited** him. Even when he got defeated. Because it meant he could chase her _again_. It meant he could touch her flesh and warmth. Even when he had her in choke hold; he rasped; how fucking slender she was. His cock would twitch. It would want to be sheathed inside her and make her howl in other ways. But his fucking programming jolted him, and he would again have to go for the kill. It was not that Nemesis was not interested in humans he saw as male. It was just less. He found Nikolai to be strange. An understatement. Nikolai was smart never to get close. He had strange feelings of rivalry with Carlos. But at the same time found him quite beautiful too. But Jill held centre-stage. This crush he had on her. This love. It interested Yvonne and pissed off Astarte. Those were Nemesis’s private feelings. But Byron helped herself to them as her birthday cake.  
  
She masturbated in front of Nemesis many times when he was in a coma. Astarte would sense and ‘watch’ **disgusted** as she saw Yvonne squirt on his face. Promising him, she would suck his dick, if he woke up. Astarte was repulsed. She knew humans were complicated, but this woman was something else. Astarte would try to move away Nemesis’s body from her, which made Yvonne pissed. She would shock the poor, feeble parasite and even scratch her and claw at her. Not enough to do a lot of damage but it still hurt a lot. But Yvonne got the message. Astarte would not always let her touch Nemesis. One time she was giving the knocked out Tyrant, when he had a more stable body, a hand job. Nemesis came and she slurped it up. Astarte could not imagine how deparved she was but she made Nemesis tentacle shot out and stab Yvonne’s leg. She called her a bitch and from then on decided not to be overly ‘friendly’ with Nemesis. She knew this was a body best suited for Nemesis. As Astarte did something great with it. It meant Nemesis’s consciousness and small slivers of flesh were growing out with this culture more and more.

The flesh came out better and more skin came on. It was still mottled. That interested Yvonne as something akin to muscle memory. The scars and wounds also stayed more or less the same. But it seemed this one attached to the earlier models of assimilation. Nemesis wrecked most of his bodies when he violently thought of the big anti-BOW gun destroyed his former self. He was not meant to survive. If his pulse and organs worked over time the cells of his new body exploded. That happened more than once. But this time, Astarte was able to reach him better. It seemed his ‘pysche’ needed to heal from that attack too. There were so many feelings attached to it. Failure of the mission. But truth was also — he had not enjoyed being killed by Jill and there were parts thought it was the best death possible. He had bested by someone who he respected. Someone who he admired and had started to deeply love. But it was conflicting and confusing and also very painful. But Astarte, each time, his cells exploded again with the pain, memory and loss, patched into him more and more his own will to survive. Soon, she did not need him anymore. He was able to know he wanted to survive on his own and made it back. A stabilised body.

Astarte, however. She was now in pain herself and she was numbed all of Nemesis’s feelings. She would need to heal. To feel better. There was a lot going on in her. She was a repository for Nemesis and herself for over 20 years. And when he finally latched into cells he bonded with; well she had aged more than him. The ways she attempted to survive; they had frozen twice as well. They had wanted to give up on the project and there were times she herself wanted to let go of what she held of Nemesis. She wondered if death was the best thing for him. And when she slept and grew sluggish in their ‘freezing’ she was still a bit frightened she would lose Nemesis. After all, she had known a life with him. There was a love there. She had been ‘useless’ until she bonded with him. Knew his power, his maleness, his body and his mind. His great speed, his wondaful way of recovering from grazed and burnt flesh. His observations and stalking prey. He was so beautiful it made her shiver.

And, when Yvonne came, she felt angry. Yvonne was more invasive than most scientists. She seemed to treat Nemesis as some sort of toy. Kissing his head and licking his face. As though he was her object. And even now, with Nemesis walking free. She sometimes looked at him too long. She knew it and she was ashamed to tell Nemesis about it. What would he think? This human wanting him. This weird scientist, who sometimes smelled of death and blood. As she was a parasite, she knew it was hard for her to convey to others what she knew about Yvonne Byron. But something was NOT right with that human.

Yvonne soon became fascinated with the plant. She had been seventeen when she began working with Umbrella, so she had seen the plant. The plant and she had a connection from the start. They would name her Gerechtslinde. She knew what she had to do. She was not above it. Without anyone really knowing, she and the plant would brush against each other and she would hug and lick and bite the growing plant. There were a few occasions where they even mated. The sex with the plant Gerechtslinde was intense. For Yvonne, it was one of the best sex she ever had. She would allow the plant to penetrate her and she would enjoy doing the same. She would enjoy the plant ‘oiling’ her up with secretions and glans. No one seemed to know. And even if Gresham came to know — he was another kind of freak and let it happen. Yvonne enjoyed she was having sex with a plant who was growing to be a tree. What she didn’t know if Gresham took samples of their sessions and so had told his father that the matriarch system should be Queen based and Yvonne should be the highest Matriarch. He knew in this way; Yvonne could still fuck her tree and they would have maximum control.

Byron and Gresham also fed Astarte some of the sap of the Gerechstlinde tree. It helped Nemesis gain more strength, but it caused some harm to Astarte. At that point, it seemed Yvonne was becoming even with the parasite who fought tentacle and claw to keep Nemesis away from her. But, it seemed to be the best way to boost Nemesis. This meant by the end of it all, Astarte was half-dead. She did not know if she would survive. She knew some of her rudimentary functions would. In that way, Nemesis would always be able to do attacks and defend with the tentacles. But some of his ‘intuitions’ based on her and him working together would no longer function. It seemed things best for Nemesis were not always the best for her. But it seemed Nemesis got the sap was hurting her and so stopped taking it. It had been a slow poison to her in some ways and she was truly glad Nemesis had figured she had not liked it. Though, she was now pretty weakened. Some of his other boosters kept her together. But Astarte did not know why. She was getting weakened.

What happened was when Jill came along. She had up and down days. Some days Jill’s presence made Astarte happy. Other days they seem to weaken her somehow. She did not know why. It was a quandary. But what she did know, Byron was not fully happy on these developments. Byron haad always wanted to be the one to do Nemesis when he was fully functional again. She had ‘seen’ him on and off as she worked for Blue Umbrella. Like her corpses, she had some loose ownership to him. But she would have to suffice with Gerechtslinde. Well, now, she used to get blind spots and made sure no one watched. But she had an outlet. There was a way, a small branch or ‘self’ of Gerechstlinde came to her, in her room. And she continued fucking the tree. She had to keep it under her control. Gresham knew. No one seemed too. And she was happy. She was being catered to by a BOW plant. And the plant seemed to listen to her. Helped her kill some people in the facility as well.

She rememberted one of the reasons Lucas, the coffee guy, came to work in Arrkoth full-time was because she killed one of the other guys who alternated for him. It was easy. She went to him. Batted her eyes. Went from cold with others to somewhat warm with him. She called him over one day to talk to him about coffee and how his life was — then without warning, they were in the greenhouse, with drones around, she stripped. He thought his luck was great and they stared to do it — only she stabbed him in the back. Literally, on the neckm with a poisoned dagger she fashioned from the tree. She cut into his neck in way so he would stumped and then slowly stabbed intop his neck. She bathed in his blood as it poured out and she orgasmed in that moment. Feeling so sated. The droned helped her move the body. They lacked the intelligence to question. They did not always know what to question. To them, their Mother and her Matriarch and her lover was supreme. So, Byron had gotten many things she wanted.

She had gotten a form of absolute power in a place. And, things had been going exceptionally well. Until Frieda Axton came along. Bulbs was a failure. She knew Bulbs refused to mate with Mama. What she also knew was Bulbs may have noticed something about her. Bulbs always seemed to have this instinctual fear of her. An instinctual avoidance. One day, she saw Bulbs actually see her kiss his mother’s vines. He had asked her. Actually, asked her about it. She did not lose her calm. She stated that she loved a creation she helped to grow. And Bulbs, looked at her and seemed to get afraid. As if, he was sensing something. She told him to leave. His mother and she needed to talk. But Bulbs was snarling at her. Soon two drones came and attacked him. Bulbs was a bit surprised. Was his mother unhappy? Yvonne gave him the ‘F’ finger and walked away.

There had been other incidents. His mother wanted to mate with him. He had genetic variance and his mother and he were not completely related. It was a plant mutational thing. But Bulbs seemed keen on seeing his mother as a mother. So, hopeful, Yvonne attempted to force him. She had slashed him with scissors and slapped him. But that asshole Bulbs did not listen. He was a pain in the ass. And, with some persuasion. Not much as Gerechtslinde was beginning to also not feel right on him; he was ousted. She thought that was the end only to see Axton treat him as a side project. She hated that woman. She was moving on her territory. That meant she would have to be a bit careful.

She had Eveline to train. She knew Eveline would usually listen to her. All Yvonne Byron has to do to make her listen was to chide her. Tell her she had not done her best. Call her a failure, a loser, a waste of atom and flesh. Eveline always wanted to be useless and please them. She was a BOW who wasn’t given even the same mobility rights as Tyrants at times. She had once been a wonder of The Connections. Then when the first model failed, they had sold to the highest bidder. Yvonne always reminded her this. Her place amongst other exciting BOWs. She was last year’s fad fading away fast.

Whenever Eveline did not listen to her reason, she slapped her. She hit her. Eveline knew better to complain. Yvonne had once used a scalpel to dig into Eveline’s palm when she failed to get drones to work. Even though she was quiet she could be cruel. She knew Eveline got this now. That she would report anything back to her. In that way, she knew she had Frieda somewhat covered. Eveline was too afraid of her to make mistakes. She would always do as she was told. Gresham had somewhat agreed that they wouldn’t mind throwing her away if she did not succeed. It was true that Eveline was in her early 20s, but she seemed to fear death but most of all, she was smitten herself, to Alaric Gresham. She did not seem to listen to many others aside him and she seemed to wish to satisfy him. In this regard, Evie seemed to hate Draugen, who she rightfully guessed slept with Gresham.

She would ask Yvonne for pointers. To make Gresham notice her. She had given her pointers. To do as she was told without question. To be cruel and efficient. What she did not expect was it to stick so well. What happened was a faus paux. She had told Evie to make Gerechtslinde a bit more aggressive. Why? She was not too pleased with Nian Zhen and co, taking digs at her plant. But it was also because the new substances they were trying on the plant was decreasing the drone production. Drones helped Arrkoth do a lot of tasks. Nian Zhen and she were locked in a battle with him wanting better drones and some weird merger project and organic prosthetics division and she was just happy with her plant being a plant. What happened was — Evie lost control. She had to do something else and the chain of command was interrupted. The plant fed off Yvonne’s negative thoughts and at that moment — Yvonne was hacking away at the flesh in delightful frenzy, as blood and viscera splattered on her, as she licked her face, as she was killing a new intern she had decided she wanted to keep. She was a small thing and she was suffering from cancer. It was perfect and she just took it upon herself, as she orgasmed, driving the chainsaw into her as she attempted to scream but was ripped apart before she could do anything.

Her frency made the plant frenzied as she was the Grand Matriarch. She later found out that Nian Zhen’s friends were dead. But Gresham had a feelings she was overwhelmed when that happened. Never fully pinpointed what she was doing. Yvonne wanted to kick herself. But she whipped and kicked Eveline instead. And kept her locked in the ‘dark attic’ for three days — no food, no water, no bathroom and with that light that hurt Evie. She screamed and begged to be forgiven. She was having scabs on her skin. Soon, Gresham said they shouldn’t punish her just to appease Nian Zhen and her as well. He took her out, all singed and scared. Evie was cold and tired and uncommunicative for many days after that. She expected Nian Zhen to be relieved. He did not seem to know the ‘punishment’ and was still mad at her. When Wagner found out about it she had slapped Yvonne. She called her inhuman and indecent. Kensley attempted to support Byron, stating they needed to keep the BOWs in check, nor else what would happen? She also wanted to say that two people died due to the error of Evie (they had been spared the truth of Yvonne’s flaws). But even Kensley shut up when she saw what happened to Evie. She stated it was too cruel. That Eveline was still a girl. She spat at them saying their stupid compassion made them weak. She made fun of Kensley saying she was just a commune trash; a luddite Umbrella should not have hired and stated no wonder Spencer dumped Wagner, she lacked teeth and skin.

Wagner has threatened her. If she had done anything else to Eveline that signified torture, there would be consequences. Byron did not wanna risk it. After all, as she was mocking them Wagner punched her and blood came out her perfect nosse. That old broad could hit. She did not wish to get any more troubles. So, she played by the book and smoothed things out with Wagner and Kensley. 

She was getting bored though of Evie and had shunned her so much the poor girl was anxious most of the time. Almost to the point of catatonia. She tried to make it up by trying to talk to Nian Zhen and also to Gresham. But Eveline did at times talk to her and was always easy to please with some new responsibility — like some over-glorified sheepdog. She knew keeping Evie in line was her job but she always found that young woman’s clinginess and neediness to be so stupid and yucky. Evie was too much of a BOW-bitch. She once had asked her to strip and she did. Then she told her to bark like a dog and jump up and down. Evie was so ashamed, but she did it anyway. Making Yvonne laugh at her and making Evie burst into tears. She then punched Evie and walked away. She was no fun.

She did not care too much on her. Yvonne had been in love a few times in her life. She would say Nemesis was one of her loves. She always wanted a high school experience of crushing on a ‘boy’ in the hallways without him knowing much. She had not have had that opportunity. Because she was in an all-girls school. But she made it up now and was happy to have it. She loved the first girl she killed and realised now why the rejection was so hard on her. Even if that love was little, she had a fierce opinion on it, a fierce voice and that girl paid with her life to know. She had loved two of the boys she had murdered. She knew they would marry her and have a life with her but she was itching to kill them and that was the extra she needed. Those had been her loves. Oh, yes, Gerechstlinde came close too.

What she had not expected was too have such strong feelings for Dr. Ziya Qadri, who had come into Arrkoth to study about so many things and to be a third part observer to the things they did. Though by now, her affiliations to Arrkoth have been somewhat cemented, not fully there, but not fully the old lukewarm. She had found herself looking aty Ziya. Those wonderful brown-black eyes. The touch of silver and black eyeliner and kohl. That accent of fat on her arms, hips, legs and stomach. She was somewhat fat and had lost some weight in Arrkoth recently. But she was still a plump thing if not fat as Naia, she was a cutie as well but Ziya did it for her. She had long hair, Wavy and dark brown. She kept it mostly in a bun. But the bun got messy and the styrands came out. Rich like earth on a forest, colour oiled on canvas, and she usually attempted to wear pant suits or pencil skirts. She was always attempting to be professional. Cover up also some scars she had from being hurt. Ziya Qadri survived two horrible marriages. Some of that horror was still on her skin, as that bitch of an ex-wife was saw her outside the facility and had hurt her badly once again. It was taking some time to heal. She had been asking her if she needed help. She wanted to touch her skin. That sweet caramel flesh, lighter in tone to Naia’s but burnt darker then hers.

She wanted to clasp her hips and fuck her raw. Again and Again. With this one, there was less impulse to kill. All she waned was to chain her in her personal basement and keep her as her mating animal. And then bring her out when she wanted to do things. Byron wa s abit confused. She wanted her both as a pet and a partner. But she was happy in this swet conflict but Ziya just did things to her. She knew this was love as well. Well, she was frustrated that Ziya did not seem interested much in relationships these days. She was always trying to leave. Always attempting to just work and leave,. Byron knew she had PTSD and was traumatised. But that wasn’t going to stop her. All she wanted was this woman.

Sure, she fucked Veles from time to time. Having a Titan Tyrant was something she liked. And Veles actually smoked afterwards at times and just left. He did not seem to question or care. But he may have smelled some of the stuff she stole from Ziya. She had a drone go into her room and take her underwear, panty—house, lipstick and tiny knickknacks she wouldn’t miss and just keep them. She slept at times with Ziya’s panties caressing her face. She was attracted to this woman. Her intelligence and warmth and appearance was getting to her. Those legs, that way of adjusting her glasses, the way she sometimes seemed she would be warm to hug. There was something viscerally potent about her as well as the way she cerebrally talked about how Arrkoth’s image was and how the public was getting interested in funding various projects on the Facility.

Yvonne used to watch her. She thinks only Veles caught her licking her lips when Ziya drank a coffee from somewhere. She sometimes grabbed the same mug before an attendant could even hone in on it and take it somewhere to lick and suck on the place Ziya’s mouth had been. She would at times cum doing that. Closed her eyes and enjoyed it. Qadri got her on something she hadn’t felt in so long. She wanted something, like she did with that girl and two guys, a future with her. A future of sex, wanting and many other conversations and pleasures. But Ziya did not seem to notice. One time she was flirting with her and Ziya thought she was drunk as they were in a bar. Later on, the older woman had laughed it off. This made Byron so angry she punched a drone until he was a bleeding mess and had to be taken away by other drones to either heal or be buried. She never knew and didn’t give a fuck to ask. But she wanted, need and craved Ziya Qadri. She knew it was when that woman came in. She was then still married, but she could see the bags on her eyes, the look of fear and instinct of wanting her work to drown her fears. She did not know why, but she had this need to kiss her into a form of sleep from all of that pain. Tell her she was special. Tell her she was wanted.

Yvonne Byron had been planning on killing Ziya’s ex-wife for a month now. She would have started sooner, but she always wondered a quick death would not satisfy anyone. She was thinking. She wondered when to get that blonde bitch. Perhaps, that was why Ziya avoided her? She was also blonde? She wanted to take her time with that motherfucking bitch. She knew she was an anger powerhouse. She onced choked Ziya and then when Ziya woke up from consciousness was all apologies and kisses. Even when Ziya wanted to get a divorce she had punched Ziya’s face countless times and also her arms. Yvonne burned in fury seeing her Ziya in bruises. She was gonna kill that cunt. She just needed to make it perfect. Maybe, even give the blame on someone else? Yes. But who? What? She had so many things to think on. She did not know but she knew it would eventually come to her. The cunt’s name was Carrie Robber. It was a poetic sounding name that had some significance. But she was get her back soon.

She wanted to kill Ziya’s ex-husband too. Byron had compiled most of Ziya's history. It seemed academia got her through as her personal life had become a mess. Ziya was married at 19 to a man of 22 when she was younger. She had come from a conservative family. They had wanted her to dump her boyfriend at the time. She spent some time until she was 29 with this man. They never had children because he cheated on her and had kids with two other women. He had abusive impulses and when he got drunk he would beat her. She attempted to tell her family and they had tried to intervene. Only it was in the last years of twenties, from 26 to 29, that she had stayed separated from him. He also was being an asshole, Byron found out, trying to stalk her, harass her to come back. It was this time she met Carrie. Her family did not talk to her for two years but she married the woman. She stayed with Carrie until she was 38 but the marriage had always been unstable.

After the honeymoon period was over, Carrie seemed to want to Ziya had many kids. She would have agreed but it seemed Carrie wanted one of her noty mentioned oof boyfriends to be surrogate and that fell apart wher Ziya felt. Carrie was cheating on her as her first husband. They had some physical fights but then after counselling seemed to become stabilised. But after she became 32, Ziya realised that Carrie seemed more interested in showing off her as a trophy bride so she wanted a divorce. It ended violently with an altercation that left her hospitalised. She felt she was again hospitalised like her husband had taken her there three to four times. After that she separated, and this spouse also seemed to want to get back together only for a while. This time Ziya dated two men and one woman. They had a good run but then Carrie came back wanting to fix things. She stayed again for two years. And, it turned nasty. That is when Ziya fought back and now Carrie has many wounds too. She finally divorced her. Now, she seemed sworn off relationships. She tried getting back with one of her boyfriends but after two years he seemed to be interested in a family. When she was not getting pregnant he left.

Ziya was around 48 years old and close to her late menopause. The women in her family started in their 60s anyways. She still maybe had some years. Her parents had encouraged her to find time to raise kids but she had already disappointed them with all the failed relationships. She wanted to work on Arrkoth to get away from all these expectations of her.

By this time, Carrie had married another woman, had an open marriage with the boyfriend she never truly broken up with, and used him as a surrogate for their five kids. Two she seemed to have when she sepearted from Ziya so they were teens now. She seemed to flaunt her kids and so-called success at family at Ziya all the time. Yvonne had been studying Ziya’s life and wanted to punish Carrie. She was going to kill her in a way they wouldn’t find her for decades. Did she care about the kids? No. Not really. She felt they were born to spite Ziya, so they deserved to get theirs too.

Yvonne wondered if Ziya wanted to have kids with her? She would be thrilled to say the least! Who knew, perhaps she was okay to have a family with the person she was growing attached to? She knew she would be able to do something different than what she was used to with Ziya. She didn’t wish to fully kill her. Maybe sometimes locked her up. But she knew her deep emotions and feelings for Ziya were so strong. She always attempted an excuse to be around the woman.

Another reason she was hating Axton is that Ziya was talking to heer and she knew Axton was mostly lesbian and liked woman. She could see Axton genuinely see Ziya’s beauty, up and down, the beautiful skin, the hair, the eyes and the way she talked and wanted to maul at her. Maul at Axton for looking at the woman who was hers. However, she usually kickled a drone or fucked her Gerechtslinde extensions when these frustrations piled up. She was so good at safeguarding things that she meant to keep a secret so she was good at hiding her fury at Axton. Some people assumed it was ONLY for the Gerechtslinde situation. Axton coming in and so-called saving Bulbs. But no one knew it was more than that. Veles and Gresham seemed to guess a bit but no one seriously knew her love for Ziya Qadri.

Well, she had maintained it well enough.

“Will you ever say to her, you love her?”

The question had been coming. So, he was smarter than he looked on. She wanted to be enraged and also proud. “Fuck off.”

“You love her, right? That is why you do these things?”

Panic had settled in. He was listing things she stole. She actually got up on the bed and wanted to get away, but he grabbed her. “Stop…” she was shaking and shivering, she had not known.

“I knew you liked her. But that lipstick you stole from her, takes the cake.”  
  


“Shut up! You don’t know!”

Yvonne Byron was so angry. She never got caught. How the fuck can he just catch her like this? This was so shameful! And he always seemed to have caught on. Maybe a long time before he had pounced on her for the information.

“Oh, I know. You been planning to kill both her ex-spouses if you got the chance.” He says this without any emotion and then he actually cracks a smile, “Am I right?”

“What do you want?” Byron was so enraged, she was fuming and her nostrils are ablaze, “What do you want, Veles?!”

Veles let her go. They been having sex as usual. Something no one really figured out. Yes, he wasn’t lying to Slevin. They had not had sex the time she was showing him sex toys. But then they did. Way later on. Veles and Byron enjoyed it. Veles could be rough with her and choke her and spank her. She did the same at times; she knew where to elbow to get his air out. Knew how to scratch and claw without much notice. Though it wasn’t any affection. They both were using the other. And, unlike with Gresham and Draugen, they seem to know where their limits where and what they could get from the other. And, the will to reach out to manipulate has itched both of them. She got hers by knowing some stuff about Slevin and the others. Now, it was his turn.

“I want information you have. On Jill, Leon, Nemesis and Naia.” Veles was emotionless and he was just caressing her hair. “I want to know things people don’t know about them and I want to know, is it true on that special project, you were working with Gerechtslinde. If so, show me some of it.”

“Fuck you.” She gritted her teeth.

“You alredy did.” He smiled.

“This isn’t fair. You are aksing for too much.” She wanted to swap his hand away.

“I didn’t. say I wasn’t offering anything.” Veles kissed her cheek, there was no real affection in it, “I do have information on that Carrie Robber did request a meeting with Ziya. She said a restaurant. You can go and spy.”

“Okay…” she says after a while, “But it isn’t enough. I mean. Will you spy on Ziya for me on those two occasions. I asked.”

“I already have. I had the information but it wasn;t what you thought. Ziya was telling Axton to break things off with her girlfriend and they did flirt a bit but I don’t think they are going to do anything aside that one night stand.”

“SO SHE DID SLEEP WITH ZIYA! I KNEW IT!” Yvonne was raging and started punching Veles and he was only slight affected and then when she broke down in tears he let her cry.

“So, yeah. You now know they slept together. But that was a while ago and I don’t anything new will happen.” Veles caressed her cheek again.

“Naia was a bit dysphoric most of her life. She has been treated badly. She stopped talking to Alexa because she thinks her so-called best friend had used her romantically that one time and that she feels no one really loves her. She said this once half tired and somewhat drunk near a drone and he told me. But she needs to go to counselling too. A counselling for the wannbe counsellor. How ironic. Jill has some biological issues. I am waiting. For them to grow. And Leon, he is here and that Tyrant. Well, he will get a surprise. Faye is ready. I think Naia’s little thing with Leon. Is fated to end.” Byron laughs, “You like Naia a bit, don’t you? Well, she is sweet. I tell you that. But you also like and love Slevin. I think I never saw you like anyone else but them. They are kinda similar. Sweet and genuine. That’s your type huh. So, what will you do with the information I gave you? I know there is more to it. I will tell you more. But you have to tell me. How did you spy on Axton and my Ziya.”

“Drone.”

She got up, “How?!”

“I wont tell you the full of it. But let’s say. Your tree loves you. And wants to help. And knows about us.”

“If you become a wild card I won’t like it, Veles.” She snapped, “We have a good arrangement.”

“I don’t know about your past. I wished I did. Were you always this wild youself? This cunning, sinister and malevolent?” he asks, his head cocked to one side.

She smiled, “You don’t need to know everything. Sometimes the best things come from not knowing.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Yvonne Byron is a serial killer. I always wanted her to be a crazed murderer. And well, she has done a lot of shit. And she is planning more messed up things. I always knew I was gonna have her as the serial killer in the story. And I always knew she would have a reveal. But yeah. She is revealed to the readers. I don't really want the characters to. know as of yet. Where is the fun in that? But yeah I always knew I wanted to make her as an emotionally unstable person even if she was a genius and did awesome scientific innovations and research. Well, kinda iconic with Umbrella by now. But yeah, she has carved her way till now from as she said 'nowhere USA' and Veles seems to know her obsession for Ziya Qadri. But other than that. What else is she doing? Who the hell is Faye? 
> 
> Stay tuned for next time.


	17. Survival of the Most Vulnerable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was a mammoth. I mean it is close to 16k words. I don't know why but I felt like to keep on writing and I did. I felt for this chapter. It had a lot of stuff in that I wanted to write on. I think it helps to form better picture of the characters I am writing on. And, some surprises along the way. 
> 
> WARNING: SEXUAL ASSAULT, SEXUAL ABUSE, RAPE, HARM, DYSPHORIA AND MANY PSYCHOLOGICAL ISSUES AND ISSUES OF DISCRIMINATION AND RACISM ARE DISCUSSED IN THIS CHAPTER

**Survival of the Most Vulnerable**

Dr Ziya Qadri looked at Jill with a smile. They been having conversations on almost daily basis. It felt odd at times. Ziya seemed close to a counsellor to Jill Valentine than a friend. Maybe, she was both? It seemed odd but she wasn’t going to question it. She had many failed relationships in her life, and she didn’t wanna fail Jill, or, well, she didn’t wish to end things with them. Maybe, an amicable closure also made her feel strange? Most of her life she went into friendships and relationships a bit too quickly. It always ended with her feeling nervous and anxious enough to pull away or the other person pull away from her. Well, there were reasons.

Her personal life was not the best. She had two messy divorces. Carrie Robber, her ex-wife, sent her random pictures at times — telling her how happy she was with her family. How Ziya was broken, damaged and a horrible person. This always made her somewhat unhappy and a bit depressed. But she never talked to the police about this harassment. She was not truly confident in relaying to them any more things. Carrie had been violent in their marriage. She had wounds and was in a hospital. Sometimes, shock did not make her fight back and she was too traumatised, emotionally and psychologically, to do much. She went to counselling and grief workshops. She had cried nakedly in front of strangers. She did not enjoy it, but it had some catharsis.

Maybe, she was just happy to meet someone who also did not seem to have a _normal_ life? Though, Jill Valentine’s case was **severe.** She had been kept in a brainwashed state, a fugue state, for around two years. She did not seem to even talk much about it in therapy. She just avoided questions. But it was hinted, heavily, that she been through a lot. She once started crying, she mentioned, in her psychiatrist’s office and begged for pills. Just anything. To numb the pain of _feeling_. She was feeling too much at the same time. Things she bottled up. She passed out. Jill had been using work to cover up her physical and emotional scars.

“I don’t want to tell Nemesis anything that happened to me.”   
“Did he ever ask you?”   
“Once. And, I don’t know, I just told him ‘later’ and he just agreed on ‘later.’ But, it’s the easiness, in which he lets go. Doesn’t pry. It’s getting to me.”

Ziya gulped. She was worried about this. She had heard it in some anecdotal reports she had been researching. That woman, Naia, younger than her, and cute, had also studied things with her recently. They had a nice conversation. Naia seemed to be worried about her cancelled classes. She had been doing almost nothing aside self-study and research. But she was far behind on what she wanted to do in class. And she was wondering if she was even necessary? And, then she was also worried about her Tyrant students, who didn’t do class. She questioned, if they even needed her? Ziya had been maternal enough to point out even Tyrant needed safe spaces and she was actually offering them one. She advised Naia on it.

Said, maybe she could keep on adapting her curriculum? She knew she would have to anyways. But seeing that Blue Umbrella and Arrkoth was not allowing her to do much due to the real-life aspects of being a Tyrant; she should just level it in ways she understood was best. That helped her anxiety a bit. She recognised that anxiety in herself. She was also always second-guessing. Though, she always found brilliant people to do it. Well, aside herself. She did find Naia to be brilliant. It took a lot to actually make Tyrants listen to it. She may not have realised this. But they seemed to respect her. Aside, the whole fat fetishism, where her thiccness was also liked by some of the Tyrants. But, well, Ziya was also liked for somewhat the same reasons. But everyone was cautious around her. She came to Arrkoth when her divorce was becoming finalised.

What Jill was facing was…the fear that Nemesis, was NOT _human._ And so, maybe did not understand what human levels of fear and pain and loss she was having? It happened at times between humans and BOWs, especially Tyrants. Their lives were so different that sometimes the pain of Tyrants was misread and not understood by humans. And, similarly, the pain and care of humans seemed to fly over from Tyrants. It was only natural there would be different bridges to walk. But nowadays, it seemed to be hurting some relationships. Well, within humans, there were discordance. Tyrants who have lived long did not always wish to connect with the fears of the young, of dying. That made them face reality a bit too much. Well, those reports made her line of work interesting. But there was a sadness there as well. To try and get someone but perhaps not being able to. That lapse can be painful. Can be confusing too.

“I wish he would ask but at the same time. I am glad he didn’t. I don’t fully know.” Jill sobbed and Ziya instinctively embraced her, “I want to feel without feeling so lost and hopeless. Without feeling so forlorn and fucking confused. I just hate it.”

“Jill.” She stroked her head and back. Ziya felt terrible. Jill was truly hurting. She could feel it in the way her body shuddered as she hard sobbed and cried. It was so much. Jill was always carrying so much. She knew the feeling. And yet…she wished Jill would cry more. Just tell the Tyrant, Nemesis. What was she feeling? She did not know. Maybe, there was a fear of that gap? Of never having him GET it? Still, she should try. There should be some way she could try.

“I am ashamed too. I think he will think. He will thinkn I let it happen. That I am not strong as he thinks I am.” Jill quietly sobbed and spoke, “Having him believe I am strong, made me happy. I am already a human. I am already weak. But Nemesis always admired me as a strong person. A part of me doesn’t really wanna lose that. I don’t want to lose that belief and admiration. I feel I would be left with less.”

Those were really strong words. Ziya understood now. Jill had always pretended. More so than others thought since she came back from Africa. She had put on a performance of strength. She wanted to do it because it was the best way to get back into her role as soldier and defender of justice, truth, honour and maybe humanity to an extent, well, she did not seem against BOWs all the time. She was in love with one. She did seem to love Nemesis. When she talked about him, Ziya could see the love in there. A love, she admitted, she did not truly believe was possible. She had told Ziya once, “You know I had to escape him to also escape Raccoon City. I never though. In my time of need and want, he would get me. He would reach out and catch me.”   
  
“So, you were falling?”   
  
“What?” she cocked her head at Ziya, smiling a bit nervously.

“You said ‘catch’ as in ‘caught.’ Did you…” she paused, giving room to Jill to interrupt her, “Did you think and/or feel you were falling?”   
  
“Analysing me?” she was laughing a bit. It seemed a bit bitter so Ziya was going to apologise only Jill stopped all of a sudden, “Yeah. I think I was. But you know? I don’t like saying that to myself. What is the point? Everyone wants me to Jill, the last great escape, the person who helps bring down corrupt corporations, the STARS, the soldier — not some weird Jill sandwich. People don’t want the mess that my honour has brought. The lack of sleep. The either overeating or the lack of eating. The nigvhtmares getting bad after Africa. What do people want? They want me to seem bored and want me to go back into action. No numbed. Bored. There is a difference. But I enjoyed fighting Nemesis in my room that day. I felt in control.” Her breath hitched.

“But” Ziya was wondered if there was more. There seemed to be more.

“But I shouldn’t have done that. He is not some weird monster or my enemy. Not anymore. He is Nemesis. Someone I could even talk to. I hate that he is now **more** …” she sobbed and Ziya wanted to hug her then, but Jill stopped, “But…I am grateful and happy he is. Look at me. I am so conflicted at times. But maybe living life is always messy.”

Back at the present, Jill was in her arms, and she was wondering what she could do to make Jill feel better. “Jill, where are your friends?”

“I thought I would have Chris. Ironically, he has been my only constant throughout the years. But I was naïve. I was always thinking…maybe some infantile part of me, we will always stay together. But things has happened to both of us. And, he had been in grief thinking I had been dead so long. It wasn’t his fault. But he was trying to move on. Seeing me again, sometimes, brought him pain. He thought he had failed me or should have looked harder. I wanted to tell him this happens. And, it had happened before back in ’98. He went off to find Wesker and I was the one stuck in Raccoonm City with Brad and well not many people. I wasn’t blaming him this time though. I was just saying we have had time apart more time than sometimes we realise. We been through a lot apart and together. And, I think we been using each other to justify all the madness that happens to us. That we are each others’s good luck charm.

That we survive for the other. But there is so much he never gets about me. My attraction to Nemesis, he said akin to Wesker’s attraction to that first Tyrant we encountered. It was NOT the same. I admired Nemesis chasing me because he didn’[t seem to give up. Like me. He was not going to walk away and let things be. I realised later I was happy he was always fighting and chasing after me. It kept me on focus on what and who I was battling. And, there is an affection to that. An admiration for him as he is not some weird ass human stalker. He was a Tyrant. This was his life and he lived it. Even the short time, with the pain and the wounds. I wasn’t going to take that away from him. I feel Chris also let me down by always making it a ‘he’ thing and not understanding that it is not always about him saving me. It was also about US going into things not so much as prepared as we thought. We were still stupid to think Wesker would not have back-up plans. That he wouldn’t use me as an experiment. He was never above those things. I feel we really messed up then too. Always underestimating his depravities, his need for being anything other than human and also his mad ways of reinventing the world. But I get him now. He never had a human space to be human. As Spencer’s Wesker, he was always a BOW in training. So, he rose up to it. I think the only human thing he did was have Jake Mueller and even that was something he could not accept.”

Ziya listened to her. Not interrupting, “Any other friends?”

“I lost connections. When I got out of Africa. I think I made some of my cadet friends a bit nervous. I also made some of my high school friends nervous. We went out and they would joke around. But then they would not know what to ask me. I told them some stuff I remembered. Good things about Africa, but you could see, they had no frame of reference. Once I had a fight with a high school friend that all she amounted to was be a wife. I am not gonna lie. I was a bit jealous. And she thre it back at me. She said all I amounted to was being someone else’s doll and you know, what? I wrecked her house. She didn’t press charges when she saw me breakdown and cry. She told me sorry and we resolved to take a break, but we knew it may be permanent. I was alone in the world and I still feel so alone. I don’t have many people I can talk to. Many people are afraid about my time with the P30. They instantly stay away from me. They think they will get contaminated. I wished it wasn’t like that. I wished…I don’t know. I enjoy the life of a soldier. But, I always thought, along the way, there would be more. Now, I don’t know, Ziya. Am I overthinking? Maybe, this is the life of a soldier and it is not always great. Maybe, there is more. But not in this. What am I supposed to do? What can I do?”  
  
She cried silently and also in pain for some minutes in Ziya’s arms. All Ziya did was listen. All she did was caresse her and give her that space to cry. She had been through a lot. And, many things she wasn’t talking about. For a long time. She once thought Chris would be around to understand and listen. But it was a soft thought like a fantasy. And, now, she didn’t know. Would there be anyone around to listen? What could she do? Ziya would be there. She knew then and there she would be there. It was without question. Without doubt. She knew it was something her soul and flesh called out too. Her hair, long and sinuous, beautiful like velvet encased Jill, like a screen of dark coffee, a shade like a summer night. A curtain, a confessional for her to say and cry and what she needed. Her dark eyes full of care and love. It seemed Ziya was full of it. Full of love to give. To capture her grief. Jill needed a friend. Someone, she could cry to. Perhaps, she needed to learn how to do that with Nemesis?

From what she was seeing and getting, Nemesis was not weird ass prick wanting to get even with her. He did not think being defeated by her was something he truly wanted to take stocks on. He was a Tyrant. He accepted that even victory at that time would not really do him any favours. So, she could tell him some things. Though, what Jill needed was friends. Her pain was not going to be ‘magically cured’ by some relationship she had with a former enemy. Or even a relationship with anyone. Maybe, it would heal some. Some relationships could do that. Friendships too. Those bonds that give you space to be yourself. But she needed to come to terms with it as well.

Jill and Ziya seemed to sit themselves down in the couch. They actually had decided in the room Ziya had come to call her own. Two months ago, she let go of the apartment outside Arrkoth when she realised, she was spending time here and there was no need to spend extra money anymore. Ziya was quiet as Jill cuddled closer to her. Using her as some kind of blanket. It seemed like she could and well. Perhaps, there was a friendship? Even more? But the more may be imagined. She got that Jill was in a fragile state. And, she wondered if she had her own fragility to contend as well. Then again, Jill seemed happy with Nemesis. So, there was that.

“The first night, “ Jill started, all of a sudden, Ziya could feel a stiffness and a raspy breath, “I knew I was tied in some sort of cellar. He didn’t put me in the pod straight away. I could hear the voices. He seemed pleased. To kill me off with the very BOWs that I fought. He said he wanted to punish Chris for always opposing him. Always getting in the way. I remembered feeling a fury. Why did I NEED to be about Chris? Did not Wesker see me as me, Jill Valentine? Did he think I was a joke? What did he think? I realised then he should not have underestimated me. I escaped Raccoon City and he wasn’t even there, he would have cheated anyway, putting himself be a BOW. I escaped the cellar but I tripped many times. I had broken an arm. I was in pain. He seemed to have gotten most of my fall. But Wesker was more interested in saving himself anyways. And, I wondered if he even thought I was conscious to do anything.

I was getting away. I found a helicopter. I knew all I had to do was climb it. I was trying to get into a radio frequency when I felt a briefcase slam against my face. It was that bitch, Excella Gionne. She saw me and started screaming for TriCell security. I put in some good slaps across her face. But soon I felt the butt of the gun and I knew it was over, there was all I knew was blackout. It took me a year to remember this. After the P30, many of my memories used to mess up. I used to sometimes get confused and forget who people were and had to write it all down. It was a bitch and a pain. I sometimes cried. But, that was what I was going through. It was sad but I did not know anyone else going through the same. But I joined a group wityh people with Amnesias and memory issues. My story took the cake in some ways of being strang. It was one of those stories but in that group I felt a bit more normal. But it hurt me too. I wanted to be more than someone with this bad memory. But, I was glad those things came back to me. I was happy I knew I was trying to escape. That I didn’t hang in the towel from the beginning.”

“It was weird though, when I was put in the pod. They thought I may die. But because of Nemesis, Nemesis infecting me all those years ago, I adapted. I, they said those kinds of viruses adapt individually as some mutations like Lickers occur. It made me a bit angry I had been infected by Nemesis. At him and at myself for getting to be infected. But, I don’t think I thought so much on it later. Without that adaptation I would not have been alive. I didn’t wish to die as one of Wesker’s guinea pigs. I wanted to do and be more. I think it was then I woke up. Strapped down with metal. Wesker was telling me about the P30, like a doctor, he did have a PhD. He was one of the moist qualified members of RPD and STARS. He was telling me he wanted to see if my unique makeup would make me thrive with the P30. I was telling him to fuck off. He said he would like to see Chris suffer. Knowing how he was not able to save me. I was fed-up with him thinking of me as an attachment to Chris. I told him he was a coward and an idiot to never consider me for myself. Wesker got quiet.”

Jill started breathing heavily in Ziya’s arms. Something flashed in Ziya, she was not liking where this was going. She had a feeling she knew already.

“He told me he had always found me interesting, fascinating and beautiful. But he was always so away from humans. This whole strangeness and disease of humanity. He knew he was not human and yet he looked so human and was so human-like. It made him forget. But, perhaps, there was nothing wrong in thinking a human was beautiful. He caressed my face. I told him to go to hell. He kept on looking at me weirdly. He told me that he was always a bit jealous, yes, that is the word he exactly used. Jealous, jealous that I would look a bit less at him and more so on Chris. He was more qualified and he wasn’t bad looking. I asked, I said I didn’t know what he was getting at but I started to thrash around in my shackles. I was hurt. I couldn’t thrash as much as he pinned me down then. I was telling him to get off. I was telling him, what does he mean? I seriously, I didn’t get it. I said he was a traitor to everyone, and he always looked at everyone weird and that he never seemed to care about anyone but himself. He asked, what my feelings for Chris were? I was telling him to get off and then he licked my cheek. I couldn’t move anymore. Wesker had put some agent in me. I was feeling a little…he started to…kiss me…and soon, he did the whole thing.

Wesker got me naked, touched me everywhere. I could feel him touching and fondling my breasts too as he basically did me. He came inside and enjoyed it. He told me he enjoyed it as I was losing consciousness and crying. That was something I never thought he would do. But he did. It wasn’t the first time he raped me. He wouldn’t call it that. He said, I was proving to be someone more than useful. And every new creature needed a mate. That’s what he defined it as….but deep down. I knew he knew he had sunk so low as to rape me. And, he knew. It wasn’t teaching Chris a lesson. He wanted me and was now doing what he wanted. And, he was calling it something else. Something seemingly noble.

You know. I never thought I would be assaulted by Wesker like that. But it wasn’t a way for him to make me feel bad. He was thinking it was ‘special.’ That made it more sick. But he did it many times. Rejected Excella’s advances, overt and subtle. To him, I was a survivor. Someone he wanted. At one point., I was so GLAD. Yes, fucking GLAD. You heard me! I was just GLAD he was not thinking about Chris and me as an extension of fucking Redfield! That was thinking me as Jill Valentine. But, it was still rape at the end. Wesker raped me a lot. I lost count but he seemed to enjoy so-called ‘fucking’ me. He would even hold me close after. Tell me, he wanted me around, said when we could imagine the world with Uroboros, we would sire children. I used to feel so numb after. I don’t know why he chose me anyways aside the resilience. But that guy was fucked up. He gotten so used to doing inhuman things, acting away from humanity, that hurting me…raping me. Seemed like nothing. Just another holier-than-thou, non-human thing he was doing. But it was, what it was. It was rape. It was sexual abuse. And I was angry when I gave hints, Chris didn’t seem to wish to bring it up. Maybe, he knew. Maybe, he blamed himself more. But ultimately, I wanted to forget it happened. The memories come and go anyways. I don’t think I fully told my therapist either. The many times it happened. But I was so happy when Wesker died and I was free from the P30. I just wanted to not be a victim or survivor. I just wanted to be Jill Valentine again. But sometimes, it is hard to know what to do. I take it slow. All I can do. Is take it slow.”

Jill had been crying softly and at times her breath hitched as she spoke of the ordeals. She then fell asleep in Ziya’s arms. It seemed she needed that. To be asleep, in someone’s arms. After telling the truth. After exhausting it open. Ziya’s tears were falling down her cheeks. She was so affected. She knew the feeling. She never told anyone. How her ex-husband, came home, raped her twice. How she had to fight him off. She hated the feeling of him hitting her and putting his dick inside. Telling her she would start to feel better and she never would. What was worse…Carrie had raped her multiple times too. More than the twice of her husband.

Carrie had gotten angry at one point because she was threatening to leave and knocked her out. When she woke too she was struggling as Carrie was assaulting her and telling her she was only good for ‘that’ anyways. She was so humiliated. She was so ashamed. She had only told her support group about it. It was a blessing some of the women there were lesbian. They had held her as she cried. They comforted her. When she was attacked by her partner of the same gender, it made her feel so isolated. Most of the history and fact, point to cis men, so she did not know how to communicate the queer violence and rape. Carrie had done it around six times. Some of them had been brutal. And, she had bled. She was scared and confused. What happened to the woman she had loved and married? Carrie once or twice apologised — tried to kiss her tears of shame, shock, pain and betrayal away, telling her it was a ‘crime of passion; that it could never be ‘rape’, she was a woman and they were a lesbian couple, a lesbian marriage did not have those heterosexual ordeals.

When Ziya finally broke that lamp on Carrie’s head, when she kicked her and broke multiple ribs and made Carrie visit a doctor for six months, she had felt very happy. She hit her husband as well, after the second time, he would never dare to do that again. And Carrie was scared of her after she had lost it. When Ziya lost it she was a tiger and Carrie had been running away but Ziya grabbed her back. She was not about to let her rapist leave unharmed. She had caused her pain. Six times. The sixth time was the final one. She was getting her pay-back. No one in the support group ever told anyone else what she did. Even the person in charge kept it. Carrie was a rapist, but she was using Ziya’s freshness of a queer relationship to try to act like she was not. She could rot for all they cared. And she was happier when she was able to do that. Able to claw her way out.

It was because Ziya knew that she could sense it, in Jill. There were times, she also fought back. Wesker was always shocked of course. Jill was never going to be fully subjugated. She knew who she was like Ziya Qadri. And none of them were doormats. Ziya understood, perhaps, Jill had sensed it too. She had said she had two bad marriages. And, perhaps, Jill could sense the extent on how bad it was and why she had escaped them and survived them. For endurance would have death there. Jill was carrying so much by herself. And she didn’t wish to talk on it. Perhaps, she felt shocked and ashamed. As she mentioned, Wesker never seemed like the type. A villain, an enemy, but her rapist? Someone, who would romanticise those violent encounters?

She did not see him as that until it happened. Until, she was facing the disgusting ways he was far gone. Truth be told, she was the same. She had considered Carrie her saviour for a while. Saviour from her ex-husband, Kamal. She had thought this was her path. She did not know she was going to be a new nightmare. She had always tried to make Ziya more passive, more so than her ex-husband. She didn’t like Ziya studying and going to university. Wanted her to cook meals or do the laundry or just stay with her. Always asking her why she was not happy with the marriage? Acting as it was selfish to want more than a marriage and to do different things. When she finally graduated from her PhD, late, exhausted and feeling demoralised — she decided she was not going to quit. She wrote and freelanced and made it. But, she also felt alone until she knew she had to talk to the support group. Tell the other survivors, how she had been abused by both a man and woman. How she felt lost. How she was angry with her sexuality. Thinking she should have been either gay or straight but had to like two genders and so made it worse for her. But bisexual and pansexual survivors comforted her, told her, her sexuality was her and NOT what happened to her. That she was loving and gave her love a chance and that she was healing. She needed to hear those words. That her sexuality was not the blame, was just who she was and nothing about who she was, welcomed any form of abuse.

She had arguments with her parents, a large row with her breaking some of her mother’s things. Nor else, she would have attacked her mother. Her mother, implying how Carrie, being a woman, was an issue. She felt angered. She felt betrayed. It took a year for them to resolve this. At first, she could only confess what happened to her, to her father. He had broken down in tears, holding her, saying he was so sorry, that he could not protect her from men or women. That he was going to break Kamal’s legs and he was going to throw rubbish at Carrie. She was so depressed. She told her father, she did not know why she ‘invited’ thse kinds of people, who seemed to only wish to abuse her. Her father said, she invited nothing. For the storm comes even those who have a roof. His way of saying, horrible things may happen to people, but they don’t deserve them. She had to do the mantra, the prayer of remembering that; she did not DESERVE it. That Kamal and Carrie were horrible people.

She could only tell her mother later. She wondered how Jill felt. She was a soldier being used against people she wanted to protect, being sexually assaulted by a man who thought she was a perfect ‘mate’ and breaking out of those ordeals and abuses and trying to move on.

She held her close and fell asleep with her cuddled in her arms.

* * *

Naia looked at herself in the mirror. This was not one of those good days. There were days, where she hated how she looked. She did not mind her gender. She did not like how she looked. When she was growing up, she had been so radically different, everywhere she went. She wondered: if she was slim enough, White enough, European enough, mixed enough, straight enough, cis enough, petite enough — would she pass? Passing seemed to matter. She had not understood why she was not liked. Deep down, she wondered if she had any true beauty? Any true purpose? She didn’t know even if she mattered.

She was envious of Tyrants. They seemed able to know ‘who’ and ‘what’ they were. Well, that envy had limits. Tyrants did not haave the choice to mix freely, had none of her rights, had none of the basic tenets in their file. But she wondered. A Tyrant knew their place. They knew when, why, how, what and where they were supposed to do, be. They had physical power and strength. Talents apparent in their biology. The fusion of their flesh with T: the virus most humans were not immune to. As a human, the hierarchies were at times subtle but there. When she was a fetishized object in a porn category but never really dateable. She remembered how once a boy called her an Arab, in a derogatory way, and said she was dirty by nature in school because she was using her hands to eat something and not used a fork or knife. She wanted to die of humiliation. She had found the utensils to make her hands shake. She had been scared. She though the utensils would clang down and noises at times alarmed her.

She went to prom alone. One that day though, one of the guys, who was going away to well-known university, danced with her. Said, she was cool, actually decent — actually, as he kissed her, said he always liked her and that maybe, maybe, he saw them as something. But he had ignored her existence. Never said ‘hi’, changed seats so he wouldn’t have to sit with her, called her a ‘freak’ with some of the other dudes, when they saw her checking out anime stuff on the net in a school computer and it had a pillow plushie of the bishounen. She bought it out of spite. Put it on a pillow on her sofa so that people would know. When her mom questioned she suddenly screamed that she didn’t care if she was being called a ‘freek’ and broke down , with her mom comforting her, asking her what was the matter.

The guy got a bit handsy. At first, a sense of feeling wanted and ‘accepted’ — let him touch her breasts, which he said, felt better that the cheerleader, who she had bigger boobs than anyway. She was blonde, perfect sized everywhere and was always popular. She didn’t know if she even wanted to compared to her. Was that fair? She found herself thinking a bit about the cheerleader when the guy unclasped her bra and that was a wakeup call and she pushed him and began to leave, while he apologised and genuinely just came back to give her forehead kiss. But she looked at him and asked, why now? He could not answer. Maybe he knew. No answer makes the pain of ostracization easier.

The first two years in high school, she usually sat by herself. It wasn’t a full-on public school and aside a handful of Black Americans and Asian Americans, there were hardly anyone like her. She was also unknowing about the manners of interaction; she wondered if she should approach first oir be approached. Even when she dated boys and men later on in life it confused her how some male people attraction fizzled when they were approached, many, loved it and found her initiative to be charming and charismatic. With gay girls, some of them love knowing who was ‘butch’ enough or ‘masculine’ enough. It became an issue as Naia was more masc in presentation and her femininity was usually erased when a more femme girl liked her. She felt confused on the labels across genders and in-between. She went on a few dates with NBs and felt a steadier kinship with them. Even if the dates did not work out, she had friends. But this was her early 20s. She had lost contact with many people when she reached university. Instagram helped and so did twitter and at times FB, Telegram was helpful. But she did not know how to talk to people later in life. She felt she was shutting herself in. Unable to get out on a self-imposed hibernation.

In high school, she had also been alone, there had been ‘tribes’, cliques and demarcations. Once a girl came up to her and asked if she was Indian. She said she was South Asian mix and the girl lost interest in her. As if being pure-blooded Indian would have seemed better, more exotic and her mixed genes dampened that exotic, that ‘calling.’ This was the 00s and some of the awareness of today was non-existent, subdued and pushed aside. There had been one or two Indian families and they seemed to get she wasn’t fully accustomed in their language. She had more fluency in Arabic so bitching to her about others in a bilingual way would not do. She was also not silky, straight haired and long limbed and thin like them. They had bodies. She was well — fat, chubby, larger than them even in muscle. She was taller, with wavy hair. It was in high school she decided to get a belly iercing and dye her hair with blue highlights. But she was a decent enough student. She hated how she failed in being a perfect rebel. Though, she was not as great student and took extra classes. Her mind wasn’t on it. So, she was not like the Indian families who had the looks, the grades and the acceptance.

Later on, she met Alexa. Alexa had come to school, new, with some other kids. Her dad was an aspiring tech moghul who had bought stocks from the last of Umbrella. He had gotten rich when he said he would work in housing Lickers somewhere and to give security details to people scared that there were stray BOWs who would come up to their house. It actually happened once. This old T-103. Still wearing frayed of his leather suit come around and break into Alexa’s kitchen. Alexa had grabbed her — ironically, it was the second time she had visited her. Alexa’s house was a mansion in many ways. She had been admiring a statue when she heard a noise. Staff was limited on that day anyways. They were still moving in. Alexa’s mom was thinking of separating her father, it didn’t go through, but that time she was way. When she went to the kitchen calling Alexa, she saw Alexa was statuesque herself. Scared. She asked what was happening and saw the T-103 stuffing its face./ Hungry, not knowing what to do. Naia had felt really unhappy. She said that perhaps they should leave the Tyrant alone.

The T-103, looked at them. Seemed to understand they were bunch of young teenagers. Did not seem to do anything as he ate some more of biscuits and some of the food that seemingly Alexa had some chef somewhere prepare for them. Alexa grabbed the phone and instead of lunging at her the Tyrant ran out the door he had come from, stumbling, seemingly desperate to escape. The place was surrounded in 15 and the Tyrant was arrested. Naia remembered telling Alexa that she should have just let him leave. She hardly remembered seeing the Tyrant anymore. But she knew one of her first arguments, with Alexa, had been, shouldn’t the T-103 be free? And, she had revisited the question, many times in her adulthood. Homeless, without purpose, like any human, a Tyrant was also lonely, tired, hungry, confused and scared. He could have attacked them. But he didn’t think it necessary or even desirable.

Even so, she found herself wondering, when she was younger, what it would like, to be someone else? Like not some avatar on Second Life, but actually in another person’s body. And she wondered what it was like to be Alexa. She listened to Pink’s _Don’t Let Me Get Me._ She found it resonated with her. She didn’t know what of her was out to get her, but she knew something was out to get her. And, she wondered why it had to be her? Even so. She wondered if she would have less nightmares of being chased, of having weird body modifications and by going out of her own body, or running into walls and somewhere else. It seemed she didn’t wish to be herself but someone else. But who? And, why? — she knew she never found herself interesting. But was that the truth? Was she without any interest? Was of no interest? She wondered. It could not be…right?

When she started university, the first semester, she joined a story writing class and wanted to quit three classes in. One of the dudes in the class always picked on her, him and his pretty friend, she and he always laughed, a subtle giggle when she came to class. She wanted to say something to them, but she didn’t know what they were on about. Anything she wrote was crap, emo-bullshit and yet both she and he could write about sexy vampires and a lot of gore and they seemed to think their stuff was write and hers wasn’t. The guy said to her she should try being a gay guy like him and then she would know what it felt to be excluded but then one of her friends, who came out as trans later on, said Naia was gay like them and that to assume that ‘heterosexuality’ was always great for people of colour was a sham. Of course, he toned down from there. Naia wondered if he was just xenophobic and did not like hearing her talk about race, belonging and things he seemed to have become unhappy to read in one of their postcolonial literature classes. Even so, Naia felt alone in those classes. Sometimes, people looked to her, as though she was an oracle, who had all the answers. She remembers one of her friends in class, Brie, was pissed when someone asked her how she connected with _The Color Purple_. Far from her experiences, she said to Naia. And she never really like Shug anyways.

Naia found some hope reading _Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit_ but there was a religiosity in the book she could not identify with. Her parents, a Middle Eastern and South Asian mix, were not conservative or radicals. One of their older daughters was more or less lesbian, newly married to a woman and during that time, some of their family members found it a scandal. So, she did not get what was really stopping her from being? She wanted to have a normative sexuality somewhere, but when she found the word ‘demisexual’: she understood her spectrum of attraction. Her need for sex but also a kind of belonging. She was not always finding it anymore. She wasn’t a snowflake. She was just not what the culture conscripted. She went out to a gay bar once and a woman, Natalie, took her home — she wanted to have sex but Naia and Natalie ended up talking a lot. Natalie seemed to want a fully committed relationship and Naia was quite new to ‘sex’ and even relationships. Natalie ended up being her friend. But she hated herself at that time for just talking. But, eventually, she was happy she was truthful to herself.

By the end of the second year in university, she had severe depression. She became agoraphobic, angry at her body, angry at the world from seemingly demanding things from her and then never giving her anything in return. She was feeling claustrophobic in her own skin. She did not know why? But she was now avoiding mirrors more so than before. Hated her image. After she mixed nine classes, the university said she couldn’t stay in the dorms anymore. Alexa had attended the same university, but she and Brie decided to get a house, they all paid for it, it was small and near campus. She had been unhappy for three years and her friends graduated. However, her mother and father said she should get back on it. To studying or doing something. She met with a therapist, who said she was feeling excluded. She diagnosed that Naia was depressive, feeling excluded from life, as if she felt she was an interloper in hers. That was the first time she was able to say that she had wanted to be someone else. Not this fat, Brown mixed-race chick, who was kinda androgynous, but she wanted to be someone else. And when her therapy asked who, she had answers, the answers changed and her therapist surmised: she didn’t have to be one single person as in thing, she could be \many’ people as in many-sided. Why was she stopping herself? Naia admitted she did not feel so comfortable in any label. She felt spliced and hyphenated. At one point in a journal her therapist found she made her own personal breakthrough: That among the hyphenated and splced she was becoming and would have a whole to hold onto one day.

When Naia began to study again, she remembered she did her dissertation something related to worlds apart, Franz Fanon and the theory of the ‘Other.’ It was weird but she put the T-103 in it. The dissertation was considered good, but she had graduated late and no one wanted to publish what she had written. It seemed strange but Gresham seemed to read parts of what she wrote. And when she went into teaching, counselling students, in the community college, she was also able to comfort people who had BOW aggression incidents or BOW bonding incidents. Ones who travelled to wanna see Lickers in the dark. One parent wanted to ground his 18-year-old daughter for walking away to the Arklay Mountains and actually seeing the wild lickers there. Naia believed her when she said they didn’t seem to want to harm her, or her friends, they were just a small group — there was a moon out, wildflowers, she felt transformed by that experience as they sang songs, the Lickers came and went, taking some of their offered food. She said, the world denied the presence of BOWs in some urgent need to go ‘back’ to a ‘normal,’ They blamed Raccoon City survivors as well for being brought in and always being talked on what they did during that time. The world, Naia also agreed, was not really ready to accept the new wilderness, ecologies and the new populations. It seemed ‘normal’ to them was to cull out what they deemed aberrations. Even if it hurt the environment and caused more harm to the overall planet and other non-humans.

Naia understood her though. She had looked at the T-103, the stray, as a teen and saw in those white eyes, supposed to be expressionless, blank — with hunger, sorrow, deterioration: sometimes, she felt a bit of a kinship when she was depressed to the T-103. After all, she knew some aspects of that emptiness. The T-103 went off its production line, survived longer than it should have and had no labels. She did not know herself to be a definite label too. She had some that others looked at her with but she didn’t always feel into them. And she got the student she was counselling, who wanted a world that accepted with some nuance they were not ‘going back’ to that nostalgic sense of ‘normal.’ It was strange a teen got this better than many adults like her father. Then again, for those who had lived longest in a world without zombie outbreaks, BOWs and new fauna and flora, the world of today seemed chaotic. It was disturbing — but then again she knew it was only because they also had been sheltered, kept away from atrocities that happened elsewhere.

Her parents were a good example of people who never truly fit in. Her mother was Middle Eastern, she had grown up in a semi-conservative household. In her days, it had been completely unheard of, some unspoken taboo, to marry someone out of ‘stock’, exogamous and not known to her culture. She had married a man from South Asia, also a bit mixed, he was from Goa initially, but he was not fully from there. Goa, in India, was known to have many Catholic and Christian influences and though he was not Christian himself, he had gone to know more of Coptic Christians in Egypt. Her mother was from Bahrain and Cyprus, Iran and Syrian lineages as well. Was visiting Egypt also to study. When she met her father, soon to be husband, they were both young. He had been a more artistic brother of a couple with eight children and one of the younger ones. He had just attended a sister’s wedding in Utter Pradesh in India and wanted to study Christianity in Egypt, especially since they had Christmas on the 7th of January to note the Julian Calendar and not the Gregorian one.

Her mother had grown up even in times when Bahrain was under British rule and gained independence in 1971. So, to her, when the world began its ‘BOW colonisation’, as it is sometimes termed nowadays, she was already attuned to the influxes of rulersa and freedoms. She had known that any superpower would be in conjunction with corporations when the bioterrorism occurred. As a celebrated scientist, her mother had written in reputed journals on how the Fall of Umbrella, could be cited as a date, a map, but unlike the words AD (Anno Domini), which had been falling into disuse but still used by some, it should have been noted to her that Umbrella was not a ‘standard’ of any type to be maintained.

“BCEC/CE may have taken over AD/BC as we do not always wish to monitor ourselves around Christ, but Christ as a symbol has been incorporated into many modern uses and mythologies. Umbrella has been as fascist as the Roman Empire. It has crucified biology of ‘Others’ in the name of Science. If there had been debates on STEM cells and cloning, Umbrella has put those debates backwards. When we read on Raccoon City, we do not read progress, innovation or aid and support, we read domestic bioterrorism. We read the use of Others as a viable means of exploitation. Science becoming as Dangerous Occultism, the talked of ‘Evil Eye’ or Big Brother watching, when its gaze virulent and takes violation as the alter of cultish worship.’” Her mother had written a celebrated piece on why Umbrella should be liquidated, many scientists lobbied after her including some relatives of Nathaniel Bard. Bard was no longer a scientist of importance, aside the Umbrella scandal he had been linked to sexual harassment, sexism and the lack of empathy even if some shred of his name was maintained as he had developed a T-virus vaccine. Some of his relations with his name, though sullied, had come forth and stated, ‘yes’, they did not wish for Umbrella to be around. However, Umbrella became a name for infamy. The red logo of Umbrella a modern-day bogeyman. It had also now taught in high schools (though also in Naia’s time) as a symbol of rot, corruption and terrorism.

When Naia’s mother met her father, it wasn’t love at first sight, it wasn’t always electric, it was chemistry at first breath of conversation; of the intimacy of foreigners but also maintaining some kinship. He had talked about wanting to pursue the Arts, despite his parent’s disapproval, they had told him there was no money in it. They may have been right, but he had gone on to be an expert, professor, scientist (he had training later on) and an academic of great interest in both The States and abroad. Her mother was also training to be a scientists, she was the main one among the pair, it had been a harder road to her, being Middle Eastern and then American but never fitting that profile in the late 80s, but she became quite famous later on for being in the team that helped stabilised some of the vaccines for the T-virus, A-virus and also making less caustic variants to the C-virus, where they were made less virulent and helped re-wild areas. Naia’s mother had not really focused on Tyrants so she was so proud to know one of her daughters was studying and working on and with Tyrants.

They married young at around when her mother was 19 and her father 18, and the rest had been history. They had five children on which Naia was the youngest and the only one who wasn’t a twin: Naia’s oldest sibling was two identical twin brothers, two unidentical siblings of brother and sister and herself, the last child. To Naia, understand the world with parents who were not normalised until much later, to be normalised herself much later, was someone who could understand a hungry T-103 looking at her, scared of her, when he ate. Running afterwards when to be notified. To understand survival was to learn to survive yourself as a queer, depressed, semi-dysphoric, semi-synaesthetic, Middle Eastern-South Asian American. To her, Tyrants mattered. She had come to understand this during her stay. To stay with Tyrants meant they became ‘your people.’ And, since, she had never really fought a Tyrant, nor felt the panic of a Tyrant focused on killing her, she did not feel so afraid. Oh, there was fear and acknowledgment of power in the Tyrant, no naivety there. When she had not been teaching, she had seen Nemesis (even if they had stopped talking for a while) destroying rogue Lickers and Hunters, seen the Arrkoth Knights do so as well. They would also attack infected humans who could not be cured, sometimes it was ethical to get rid of them then to wait for a vaccine reaction to kick in as some may seriously be lost to the care and help they had nowadays. More than once a Tyrant accidentally hit her and she had bruises, it had been an accident but it made her know how to maintain space and how to adjust and adapt to fit in with Tyrants. So, she hadn’t need to be an enemy of a Tyrant to know they could be strong or volatile.

Additionally, most people growing up post ’98 and 00s has had to face some BOW aggression. She remembered once her school had to be barricaded as rogue hunters broke in and stole food and supplies. There had been no fatalities but casualties for sure. Hunters were aggressive in that area thanks to government officials at one point thinking starving out those BOWs would have been great. It had happened five times. The schools had paramilitary stationed on three of the last ones. She remembered some of those guards had to kill one or two Hunters but most of the Hunters did not seem interested in eating them or even if they were, ate little of the guards. It had been theorised by the scientists and researchers that the more **wild** the BOWs became the less they seem attracted to other BOWs and sentient people to eat. It seemed the BOWs had found their own ecology and soon adapted to that. Some Hunters still enjoyed human meat now and then, but they were interested in human foods, both chemicals in it or not in it. They liked the flavours, the tastes, like how ravens and crows did. But food was usually the reason for attacks at her school. It finally made a perimeter measure. Five times was a lot times but seeing how the Hunters could not be hunted out without specialised tropes like the BSAA they had to wait for the right time. It soon became necessary for law enforcement and many security people to learn how to fend off BOWs even zombies, how to sterilise bites and cuts from T-virus, how to stop spread of infection. They learned it too. Some now had immune boasters against T and A virus.

The human body also adapted to the BOW presence and strains of so many lethal viruses. Some people became resistant and had less issues with dealing with cuts. Alexa once survived a minor outbreak with less scares but had some nasty bites that took time to heal. Naia had only faced one ‘zombie outbreak’ in her life. It was also minor, and she was close to sixteen and a ship had some crew infected. One of them bit her leg and she showed signs of a good resistance and was soon vaccinated. Though getting the vaccine made her sick for two weeks as her body made radical changes but now seemed to have a more galvanised immune system for it. At present, outbreaks were contained and treated very well.

People were understanding that such things were a part of life. Also, the G-virus was more malevolent than the T-virus. T-virus has been shown to be spread via blood and bites, but it was not able to be sexually transmitted. G on the other hand was like a walking STD. G-virus wanted to reproduce and so even when given drugs to humans it was seen that the convalescing humans were hypersexual with intends to wish to reproduce. G-virus did not need traditional sexual contact to do so as the virus made assemblages in the body to inject itself into other hosts. G-virus also had the limitation that it could mate with mostly people sharing their DNA thus it was also dubbed as the ‘incest virus.’ But G outbreaks had also been worked to be contained. Most people did not get infected easily by the G-virus nowadays and they had some treatments, so no one easily becomes a monster like Birkin.

Though there had been some populations of G-creatures. It had been somewhat rare to sight them but there had been smaller towns or villages in nations, where the G-virus also adapted and people who got infected or become ‘monsters’ did not seem to wish to turn back to their once human selves. It was still a contentious form of life and some people had been called out on it. Some G-creatures were made in labs and let out in controlled areas. A project had ended when the G-creatures escaped but seemed to have run away to the mountains. They had not easily been spotted since and many of them seemed to not care about humans and stayed away from them. Arrkoth has had some talks on procuring some from the small company, Cognita. If Arrkoth was renowned for Gerechtslinde and Tyrant production/reproduction, Cognita was well known for having many G-creatures around. They had to keep them in sterilised labs. But it seemed the more time you spent with them they seemed uninterested in ‘mating’ with humans in an invasive way. The G-creatures realise humans would make terrible hosts for their young and usually tried to mate among themselves or find viable humans. They tend to lose their aggressive edge with humans too. But these were like 10 G-creatures. Due to UN sanctions, they could not easily be produced as Tyrants, not yet anyway. G-virus created more abominations in Raccoon City and many of them ‘nest.’ Seeing no one knew how some of the non-aggressive types where they did not always wish to risk it.

Cognita had been talking with Arrkoth to send some of their G-creatures or samples. Arrkoth was deemed ready by authorities to handle the G-creature. But yes, they had to make sure they did not seem irritated by spores and seeds of Gerechtslinde and not aggressive of Tyrants. To do, would be to make them interact with Tyrants on some small scale. Arrkoth had agreed to it. So, they may get those interactions sooner or later. Naia had been reading up in these developments and is supposed to meet with Gresham. He wanted her around for those interactions and had told her ‘to brush up.’ Of course, this meant many other personnel would have more tasks to do as well.

“You know…when you make that look when you look at the mirror, I wonder about it.”

Naia was startled and jumped a bit only to see a sleepy Leon looking at her. “I am sorry. I wasn’t going to wake you.”

“Why do you look at the mirror like that?” he asked, “Do you not like your face?”

“Maybe.” She spoke quietly.

“I like your face. It’s sweet. It’s warm.” Leon was still half-asleep but he could see Naia was tense, ‘”It’s a quarter to seven. Did you need to wake up so early?”   
  
“Yeah I did. I have a meeting with Gresham.” Naia informed. She was wearing only panties. Her breasts were out in the naked. She and Leon had not really had sex yet. It was strange but he seemed to also wish to take it slow. It was…pretty interesting. At first, she wondered if it was her. She did not find herself as covetable as the sex Ada Wong. Leon had confided that being a drunk had its drawbacks. Well, when he was stressed and thanks to him chugging drinks, he sometimes got whisky dick and wanted to lay off some of his drinking. He was so embarrassed when he told her but was happy to be held by her in embrace. She didn’t seem to judge him on this basis. He knew Naia was different in this way. Many women and men seemed to judge you easily on details on sexual performance even if the woke thing to do was never to discriminate on things you could not control. It wasn’t a permanent thing: Leon had had this issue due to his own depression and his PSTD from always losing people on the job. He never had a partner, both professionally and romantically, as he thought Fate put a target on his back. But it wasn’t only the stress. Everything happened so fast for him that he just wanted to take things slow.

Naia had been nice to him. Open, considerate, warm, and kind. He hoped he was being the same too. He had talked with her, many nights. He enjoyed the conversation. Talking about the time in ’98 when he was only 20 or 21. Telling on how he had been drunk and was called in later but also was late to get to his job because he broke up with his girlfriend of the time. “I talked to her two years back. She is married. Works in pharmaceuticals and has kids. I think she traded up. I talked to her after Raccoon City and she knew I joined the FBI. She and I dated a year after Raccoon City. But you know, Naia. I was kind of in love with Ada. And, I don’t know why, but she comes back in my life so many times and I just don’t always know how to move on. At times, I don’t even think about it. I feel like there is too much in my life to wonder about a relationship.”

“Don’t say she traded up. You are a good man and person. Even if you broke up, she was happy to have had you alive and you were a changed person, after Raccoon City. I don’t think you would have had the tools to talk to anyone seriously about it.” Naia comforted him.

“You know I thought I needed someone with the same experience. For five years, to my late 20s and early 30s, I dated Claire and it did not go as well as I thought it would. We were always busy, and our relationship was mostly physical and sexual. There was a comfort going back to home to someone who experienced Raccoon City as I did. But that comfort ran out. I think she and I both knew were scared to talk to others and I am glad she ended things with me. I had a hard time bringing up Ada to her. One time she got mad, saying Ada was a mercenary who was willing to risk others for the G-virus. Another time, she confessed she was jealous that I had a battle angel saving my ass when she wasn’t there for me. I think she and Chris had this thing where they need to protect others to the point of overprotection. I…I guess I was happy with Ada, what I felt was, she respected my weaknesses and my strengths. I could be nakedly vulnerable in front of her but she wouldn’t consider me to be too weak or off. I don’t know who I had that with.” Then he smiled, “I am getting there with you.” 

The kiss was deep and meaningful. Leon marvelled how easy it was to talk with Naia. She did not easily judge or get mad at him. And in all fairness, he felt a bit strange. She had spoken a bit about her life but the last few times they just talked about his. But he had been asking stuff about Naia. She was afraid he would find her boring. But he was finding her interesting. When she showed the soft glow of skin where the zombie bit her as a kid he touched it and asked if she was afraid. She said she was but she also wanted to face her fears. And as a kid, being bold seemed easier at times. Leon said she may be braver than she knew. She blushed.

“You look great.” Leon looked at her caramel and freckled flesh, her buxomness, he did not know he would be attracted to the curvaceous and thicc type, but Naia was doing it for him.

“You are one to say that.” She looked at him. Leon was inarguably a work of art. He had lost some of his boyish features and did sometimes look tired, with dark circles in his eyes and a sense of alertness in them, she did not see in his older pictures. He was a very bodily being. His lithe muscles and the athletic nature of his muscles, the firmness of them, she had been pressed on him when they were both lying down together. It was nice. He seemed to love kissing her neck and freckles. Yet his sculpted abs and aquiline sense of strength was amazing to her. Even with women, she liked them muscular if not too much. She seemed okay if Tyrants, as they were, over-muscular, but she seemed to like that they were top-heavy but had narrower waists. She joked Leon had that vicious V-hips and the ‘cum gutters.’ He playfully laughed back. His eyes and hair and face also was so soothing to her. His beautiful brown hair was lovely against her natural dark red, purple highlighted, which she needed to dye back. “You are beautiful, Leon.”   
  
Leon blushed. He was not used to be called ‘beautiful’: handsome and rugged, yet it was in the intimate space to him, and knowing how Naia was, where her compliment mattered. He was still sleepy and Naia kissed his forehead. He had crashed at her apartment. Cooked dinner with her too. They made some lovely spaghetti and meatballs, had some pie. She had been working he saw, reading and taking notes. He had looked at her for a while, fascinated at her focus, concentration, and drive. _Yeah, she definitely looks down on herself,_ he had thought when she ate.

Naia gazed at him when he was eating and distracted. The way his mouth moved, the way his tongue grabbed the locks of noodle, the way he could ease up when he ate. The sense of presence he radiated in his own security and the way he was opening to her. The beauty of him. She was enjoying it. She had seen him in the gun range. That focus was so amazing. He had attacked some Lickers, helping the newly formed Arrkoth STARS division to actually take down some diseased Lickers near the towns that supplied Arrkoth. She was amazed to see him in action, the way he dodged and shot bullets and the way he coordinated with teammates. It was one of the first time he had a partner to fight with. It was unusual for him, she could tell, as he was so used to infiltrating things by himself.

Not to mention, his partner. Had been a Tyrant. A T-103 model, who was handsome and lethal as Mr. X. He looked at him. He was in a loose trench coat, he was a wearing a vest leotard, his trench coat was folded in his shoulders becoming three-quarters and he was showing off his hips. He was wearing leather pants and all leather, like Tyrants usually wore. He was caring battle axes. “Hey, there Leon Scott Kennedy, I am Thor. You know, like the Viking God.”

Leon looked at him and tilted his head. “Wow. Hi there. So, we gonna run this together?”

“Hell, yeah. It’s great to be out and about. I do get out. Not so much. Not complaining.” It was strange for Leon to see a Tyrant who looked like Mr. X talk so much. He remembered the terror of hearing Mr. X’s footstomps and the fact he looked uncannily quiet, without expression. Though the Titan/Elite Tyrants he saw even back in 2013 were all with more expressions. They let out rage and anger when he escaped. Also, he remembered the shocked and surprised look at one when he was saving Alexander Kozachenko, with a tactical knife. The Tyrant looked so appalled and infuriated to be challenged with a knife while he had mutated to a Super Tyrant. He attacked him with anger and rage at him, which was something of a surprise also to Leon, to see him graze a Tyrant’s **ego**.

“What do you mean you don’t go out much?” Leon found himself getting chatty, it was like he was twenty again and was a rookie in RPD, “You are a Tyrant.”

“What can I say? I am on protective detail for all these years. You know? I am not as young as the other T-103s.” Thor laughed at him, swinging battle axes as a juggler, it was a sight to see.

“Who do you protect?” Leon was curious. He never heard on anyone getting a Tyrant to aprotect them so this was interesting.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Thor joked around.

“Yeah. I do.” Leon looked at him back. The playfulness of the Tyrant was so unexpected that he did not know what to make of it.

“Rakin Nasyrov. Dr. Rakin Nasyrov. You know, if it were up to him, I would have him run Arrkoth. He is a cool guy. He is supposed to be working on Tyrant genomes and G-creature genomes. But he spends most of his days also working on stabilising Arrkoth intranet. He is a genius. He is learning from others about web and also teaching some of it himself. He is not always great at it but he is doing a great job. I was mostly on his protective detail. He has lived on grounds like this since he was seven and contracted the T-virus and though cured, had some disabilities because of it. Even though now he is twenty-nine.”

Leon had heard Naia mention that name before. He was also supposed to be a teacher fort Tyrants as well, but he did not seem to come out much. When Naia called on him he said he would get back to her shortly and seemingly forgot all about it. And Naia did wish to mail him and inquire about him again but had been advised by Xia Nian Zhen to wait. He advised Naia that Rakin was a bit of a hermit who was already being pressured by Kensley to ‘come out of his shell’ to the point they had verbal spats with each other causing additional problems to Byron and Gresham.

“Oh, is there a reason why you are getting out more now?” Leon asked, preparing a 9mm.

“Yeah, I think I am a barrier for Rakin to make human friends.” Thor swung his axe high up in the air, “That was okay at one time. He didn’t need or want other people. Most people pitied him. But, dear old Rakin wasn’t up for that.” Leon wondered why Thor was so open about someone and to him, “You might be wondering why I am talking about him?” Bingo, “Well, it’s because he is supposed to meet your girlfriend, Naia. He also told him, he wanted to make a good impression on a beautiful and smart babe, and he could see why you two were together.”

Leon stopped for a moment. It was the first time he realised, someone said Naia was his girlfriend. It didn’t sound bad and he actually liked it. Soon they were out in the field and eradicated BOWs in a fell sweep. Thor was so dextrous for a Tyrant that Leon was amazed. Naia watching Leon was amazed. How he didn’t miss a beat as though he was dancing with bullets and adrenalin. He was able to quickly get on his feet and his years of being a soldier and agent made him take pain easily too. He didn’t falter when he got hit, either rolled or got back up. Times he just ignored the pain. Thor was more than impressed. He was fighting alongside the legendary Leon Kennedy. Leon was more impressed with Thor. The guy seemed to actually _dance_ while taking out enemies and sing some song lyrics. He surely wasn’t at all a Mr. X, even if he seemed to be a later model of T-103. General models of T-103s were discontinued due to design flaws but the new modified ones were quite popular like the Tyrant Rs, Hypnos and the like.

That had been some days ago but Naia had enjoyed watching Leon fight. He really knew what he was doing. She was amazed at how he could move and how he could dash and flip and twist. She saw some videos of Chris Redfield and Redfield was bad at that. He seemed to have focused on lot on power to defeat Wesker. He was too muscular and moved slow. Hell, even Carlos Oliveira was built and moved slow. But Leon was a good balance act. She actually went and hugged and kissed him. In public. After the mission was over and the town people were thanking Thor and Leon for taking care of those diseased Lickers. It was Azogues, one of the towns that helped Arrkoth get fuelled up. Some Firm Oaks attendants and care people were there too.

One of the old women, in her 70s, eyed Thor with a look of lust and desire. Thor winked at her making her half-faint ion pleasure and the attendant look at Thor with some scepticism and he just shrugged. But some people saw Naia kiss Leon. She was going to apologise but he hugged and kissed her back and held her close. One of the Firm Oaks people ‘awed’ out loud making Naia blush. She was as tall as Leon, but she put her cheek against his.

“Uh, I think I am a full day today.” Bac in the present, Naia changed her panties, wore a nice turquoise lacy bra, and matching lace-cotton panties and was wearing a suit. She wore a stripped blue and white shirt, that actually she got second-hand from her father, she wore a grey pencil skirt and jacket and was fixing her hair, which was longer now, into a bun, “Is it okay, if we meet back and have dinner?”

“Yeah, sure. Believe it or not. But I got into duty as well. They have be working with the STARS here. FBI got dibs in making sure Belikova coming here is not a complete warp. They may also tell Jill to look into it but seeing I faced Svetlana all those years ago they want me to make sure she is under control. Despite the drugs she takes to stabilise her condition, she has bursts of energy and is still fast on her heels. She had wanted to escape at one point and took down 12 guards. They don’t wanna take chances with her. She had wanted to escape because she knew most people had started to hate her and she feared they would execute her. Nowadays, it said she doesn’t seem to give a rat’s ass.”

She looked at Leon sighed, “Will you be okay? They seem to wanna keep her at Arrkoth.”

“Yeah, Naia, I don’t have an opinion really. I think it’s for the best seeing she is a criminal and I don’t know if anyone would want her in any form of leadership again. I know now what I am dealing with, so I don’t care. It’s great. You know I am gonna meet Buddy again. He can walk now. Finally, they helped his spine with those STEM cells. Apparently, Arrkoth helped in that development. But told him to take it easy.”

Leon was up, but he was in a state of being vulnerable and asleep. It was nice to have conversations without feeling there was a threat on the horizon. He missed it. When he was with Claire, they usually did not have this.

Either one of them got up before each other or dressed to work. Sometimes, it felt like they were just leaving to do something else. But they had quiet dinners. When they did, Leon felt happy to know he had someone. Claire was happy too, she smiled and was present in those instances. She was happy working in medical aid, giving people what they needed. Though, it was Raccoon City coming back again and again. She realised maybe she didn’t want to stay with Leon as he realised. Surviving together may not always mean love. Trauma can bond but it was not always the best bonding agent.

Naia went to her meeting with Gresham. While Leon proceeded to fall asleep again. Calm and happy.

* * *

“But that is not fair. I know an assessment may come up but most of the students in the class are away most of the time. I did give tasks to do, homework if you could. But I don’t know how many actually had chance to do it.” Naia was making a case to Gresham. It had been almost two months and he was asking for a status report.

“True. I think why I asked is because…” Gresham looked at her with a smile, “Is that all the students were not ‘created equal.’ Have you been able to meet Askafroa, then, Bulbs?”

“Yes, he was the only one in all this time I could really teach.” Naia responded, “It is hard to measure him. I don’t see anyone else like him so I wanted to be able to get a hang of him.”

“You made progress reports on him and so did Dr. Axton.” Gresham was looking at one, “Good work. And, don’t worry. I wasn’t giving you an assessment scare. I think I wanted to apologise. I brought you here and most of your student can get AWOL for all. Even though it is OL I guess it is sudden though.” Gresham was being polite, he was unpredictable as Naia heard and saw so she nodded in gratitude to at least show him respect. “You will have been again. Can you tell me how Draugen is doing?’

“He is okay. He doesn’t always work the hardest. I can tell. But that is because he is genuinely busy with other things. You made him want to help bring Former President of Eastern Slav Republic, Svetlana Belikova, over, so he tells me he is supposed to be in her security detail with Slevin and Veles.” Naia did not want Draugen to get into trouble. She knew lying would be bad to both of them, but she knew he listened to instructions and did try in everything. Not everyone was a ‘natural’ student. Fuck, she wasn’t when she was a kid or teen. She had been a bad student and it was Alexa who always outshone her in academics. The future hadn’t been bad for her though. She now worked with Tyrants and Alexa had congratulated her as many, including her, wanted that. She was quiet with Alexa but perhaps parts of their friendship were salvageable. She had known Alexa for so long, she wouldn’t deny she missed her.

“Draugen needs to pay attention to the classes. I will have to give some time off after this escort so that he does well. He is the first of his own kind and I think he is gonna be wasting time if he doesn’t show he has adequate or great intelligence.” Gresham pointed out, Naia hated this IQ thing but she knew speaking that right now was NOT a good idea, “Personality matters though.” A good sign, “I am glad Draugen has a such an excess and goodness of personality.”

Gresham gave a mischievous smile and Naia could not discern it. He looked to be thinking of some fond memory. Though Naia did not understand what it was and before she could say anything he seemed keen to continue with their conversation. “But yes. No one wants a dumb, silent Tyrant anymore. Maybe, it was because they were not known about, the element of surprise back in the 90s helped but for these days it is important to have more intelligent beings. I know a lot of people have philosophical arguments to that but in truth, intelligent design of Tyrants will keep them functional. You know back several years ago when The Connections made Eveline, a young girl with the ability to control your mind and gained more so with her fungus, it was state of the art. BUT, the idea was always more interesting than the execution. Making a little girl was stupid and creepy at best. Yes, she may be unassuming but regardless of how you viewed it, she was still a kid girl who had a kid’s desires.

The problem is, The Connection were okay using the Bakers to see out how Eveline worked. I don’t intend to put useless tests like that. Of course, it can be deemed unethical and violent but even on a scientific scope having some weird ass guy, that Baker son, run your operation is also stupid. What we need are viable ‘agents’ and we must move way from the semantics of ‘weapon.’ A weapon is just an instrument and an instrument can be used by anyone. Lacks copyrights, lacks even basic rights. You know this, yes, when you wrote in your dissertation in your BA, what was it? Yes, ‘No one has the copyright to the or an Apocalypse. And even the apocalypses we face today have issues of the instrumental and not seen as agents with context. Not nearly the end but never even the medias res or beginning.’ That was a good line. And, so, we need to make the Tyrants as agents to protect humanity. Or, even themselves.”

Naia was surprised Gresham read her dissertation. She had forgotten that she had written that. Especially, when the chapter she focused on the T-103 as a symbol but also an adaptive personhood of a BOW apocalypse. And how, an apocalypse, in the secular, was not fundamentally, an extinction, but rather another means of survival: an adaptation. Well, she should have known Gresham was going to read what she wrote. She just hoped he didn’t snoop around through her classified files on other people but knowing him, he may have read about students she counselled and students she taught in the community college she worked in, before it closed down due to all those scandals and other issues such as lack of resources and funding. It had been around two years when she was unemployed. Still, this job has been more than anything she could have ever truly imagined.

“Is it true though?”

“What is, Gresham?” He never seemed to mind her calling him ‘Alaric’ or ‘Rick’ or ‘Gresham.’ He seemed to like a certain casualness between them. And, he had openly said she was ‘cutesy’ and made kissy faces at her once. Seeing he was unpredictable and like this with everyone, including Tyrants like Draugen, she chalked it up to his personality. It could be jarring though. One moment, he was all happy and the next, he just could snap like a wire.

“You are going to write an application to do a Taught/Research Masters here and then go to do a PhD?” He smiled, as if congratulating her.

“Yeah, I decided to also study alongside the job. I now have some of the money and Arrkoth HR said they would cover most of the tuition. I wanted to do it on the ongoing studies on many new BOW studies that are coming up and Arrkoth is training people to do so. It may involve Licker Studies, you know Pharyngealogy. So it will be Ethology and Psychology. Comparative Social Sciences and a bit of the Natural ones.” Naia was a bit excited when she said this. She had been telling Leon the day before that she was interested to get back to studying again.

“That does seem interesting.” Gresham smiled at her, almost as an encouragement, “I do believe you.” He pointed at her, “Will go far. I like the way you are Nazari.”

Naia had to blush a bit. It was nice being encouraged by one of the lead scientists in her field, “I was hoping one of my supervisors would be Dr. Agatha Wagner and Dr. Xia Nian Zhen. You can help me.” She wasn’t gonna get her hopes up, “If you want —:

“Yes.” Gresham smiled, “It would also a good way to monitor what you write and also make sure Draugen can learn a thing or two.” Gresham was quiet for a moment, Naia had been seated in front of him, “You know.” He smiled again that cryptic smile, but Naia was getting some of his smiles as she continued to interact with him, “I don’t think Draugen will be the only NE-v T Type pretty soon.”   
  
“He won’t!” Naia’s surprise had her look at him with wide eyes and she quickly said, “Excuse me…I’m…just…I didn’t know.”

“No one really knows. After Nian Zhen was recovering from his shit ton of alcohol drinking the only person I told was Byron. And, as usual, she had been shut up on it. I don’t think she even told an ant. The thing is. This one or them, I am not sure if there is more than one. Well, they have more of an attitude. I was helping the project for the last two years but seeing I had to keep tabs on Draugen and not them, I let my colleague in Arrkoth Alaska take over that. Nian Zhen knew bits of the project but there had been some letdowns. Making a NE-v T Type was more difficult than making the original Nemesis. They have more heightened intelligence and awareness than tentacle porn I mean Nemesis.” He seems to really enjoy that nickname for Nemesis, it seemed to be more of an endearing term rather than one of ridicule nowadays, he seemed to even think about it in a sexual way. Naia wanted to laugh but she slowly coughed it away, “Well,” he continued, “The thing was when they were in foetal stages. The NE-v T Type is more of a ‘pupa’ with a parasite to them. The parasite begans to grow first and gain some consciousness more so but only a little while later, the Tyrant foetus gains a consciousness a heartbeat. Due to the biological extension, almost like a cybernetic implant, it always depends on how the NE-v T Type Tyrant cells and the parasite bonds and grows.”

“That is so fascinating. An attachment since birth.” Naia recognised some of the differences. Nemesis, as he was a prototype, had the parasite NE- Alpha one, attached to fully grown sized T-103 model. It then heavily changed it and was further modified by Umbrella Europe. NE-v T Types from the get-go were born from the cells and parasite from a more infantile stage.

“The recent NE-a T Types are also ‘born’ in a way this way and if they are manufactured, they have further treatments than the original Nemesis ever could have conceived to receive in that time. You know, Nemesis was a prototype developed to hunt down STARS in some ways. Yes, it was a creative concept to increase the T-103 line but they tested it on STARS knowing at least they would be killing two birds with one stone. Who would have guessed BU would one day remake STARS with Arrkoth? But then again, the NE-nu/vu (v) T type can be finicky. It requires the most adept kind of parasite bonding. You can guess how many failures we have. Draugen is a celebrated success even if he is considered a prototype like Nemesis. They kept it for a long time. Thew artificial wombs they had adjusted at first did not help. Now, they were implementing new ones. But there was some talk on having more realistic wombs, as in to make some NE-a T Type females pregnant. Though that has been proposed and will be discussed in future, we made more essential pods and growth hormones.”

Naia listened attentively. She was fascinated there were now going to be more NE-v T Tpes. However, at the same time, she was wondering what this meant for Draugen. It may cut some of the pressure off. But, could it make him feel threatened? He did not know the genders of the new Ne-v T Types as well. “Well,” Gresham continued, “They have been allowed to grow a bit. This project dates more than two years. It has been around five. After Draugen’s success, people obviously wanted to keep the project alive. But, it seemed hard to keep track of it and also, many were failures. So, I think only two had survived the foetal stages, the growth hormones and adjusted to their pods. I think they are like 23 years old now in human years. But the last 5 years, they also lived with a foster Ne-a T Type mother.”

“Wow, this is just…Are we wanting me to study all of this?” Naia half-joked.   
  
“To be honest, yeah, it would be good to see how your teaching comes in with their NE-a T Type surrogate mother’s one. Her name is Maitreya and we had also made her an experiment. An Inuit Tribe in Alaska allowed us to let a NE-a T Type live amongst them. She was accepted among the people as one of them and also a protector. She went hunting with them, fished with them. She is a lot like Foe. And soon, one of the young human girls in their village was orphaned and she took over as the girl’s surrogate mother. This happened many year’s ago, and the girl is now a young adult. This was in the early days of Arrkoth and before the Alaskan branch had been full on stabilised. But the new NE-v T Types had been taught by Maitreya. She would be coming along soon as her adopted human daughter, Ikiaq, wants to be a scientist and researcher and wants to see if she has a place in Arrkoth.”

“That is so cool!” Naia let her excitement take over but then stopped, “Was it weird to have a NE-a T Type as a foster mother?”

“Well, it was joint responsibility of the village but, it seemed from the first day, she knew she had been orphaned, she had gone and stayed with Maitreya so everyone in their village felt she was the mother. Of course, many Arrkoth Alaskan scientists wanted to do research and they were allowed up to an extent. When Ikiaq was young, the elders rightfully thought it would be a toxic environment for her. They knew the NE-T was like one of her designated mothers and so said they would allow some observations and but not on the expense on the child’s mental health. And seeing Ikiaq grew up with many other caregivers, she did not seem to have ended up as any different from a human child. Though, I think she is beginning to either resent or notice that one of her guardians is a NE-T. That has questions for anyone. But the main issue? The village was once mad at us. The NE-v T Type kids who did not make it — well, Maitreya had tried to raise them and the village and they failed to keep those NE-v T Type children alive due to their defects. It took a toll on many of them for a while. So, yeah. We had to try again later and also with the blessings of the village.”

Naia wanted to cry, “That wasn’t fair Alaric.” She says this softly, she wants an outburst but knew she had to approach this carefully.

“Yes, it was much.” Gresham stated, “But when the two new ones survived. They were so happy. Maitreya is officially recognised as their mother though yeah not fully the same species. And I think Ikiaq considers them as her siblings. But, it is not certain how she considers them as her siblings. Or, maybe she doesn’t. She may consider them as family members or maybe not. It is up to her, we can’t tell her a NE-v T Type is her sibling and she was a bit older when they came around even if they now aged more than her due to the hormones and pods. So, yeah. I guess Ikiaq and Maitreya, are kinda also your responsibility now. With those two new Ne-v T Types.”

“Wait, what?” Naia was a spit spellbound but Gresham did not seem to bother much.

“Don’t worry. I asked Rakin, that bitch, to get off of his ass and help out more, and Wagner and Kensley have been told to help out. You are not alone in this. That Dr. Ziya Qadri has sent a request and you know what? It is not a bad deal. If she sees well-adjusted human kid who basically had a NE-T as one of her guardians or Mom, she may not give Arrkoth a 5 star rating. Also, I wanna see how Draugen interacts with his own kind of NE-Ts. Maybe we may have fights.” Gresham was looking at papers, Naia calmed down a bit but was also looking at how he was also fiddling on his Tablet to see what he could bring up, “Oh, yeah. There are a male and a female. The female is Rangda and the mail is Khonsu. This would be interesting. Do you think Draugen would wanna mate with Rangda? Don’t see him as the Dad type but it seems she hasn’t gotten impregnated by Khonsu even if they had time together. They are not blood relatives. So, no issues on that front.”

“I think Draugen would be interested. Though more shocked at first.” Naia commented, he had never seen anyone like him. Might make him feel more vulnerable. More self-conscious.

“In any case, this will be fun. You know so many new things will be happening soon. With Svetlana Belikova coming in, I am hoping Arrkoth has a bright future ahead of it. And not an apocalypse. Or, an endurable one.” Gresham smiled as he said it, “Adaptation, right?”   
  
“Right.” Naia had to smile a bit as well. So many things were happening. She wondered what the future had for all of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do I want some Jill x Ziya moments? I was thinking of them as friends but when I began to write it became kinda romantic leaning. But at the same time I am wondering if I want a bit of that F/F for Jill. Well, Nemesis would not fully enjoy that xD But yeah. I had to write some of the dark things. I don't know if Wesker would do that but seeing how obsessed he is on purities and augmentations outside of the human, I may not put it past him. Yeah, I wanted to talk more on Naia's background. I knew it would come up eventually because no character is truly without one. But yeah, in this universe, Leon x Claire did happen. I don't know if it would work again in the future but hey, there are limits to trauma bonding. And, they reached theirs. But if they bond better next time? Could happen. I mentioned Rakin some chapters ago and couldn't write more on him. I had to focus on other things but he defo an important character. 
> 
> Please review and give me back your feedback. It would be cool to know what you guys thought of this mammoth chapter =)


	18. Arrivals and Awareness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I actually split this chapter into two but now you have 2 chapters. I hope you like them. Introducing some new characters who have their place and purpose. Well, Svetlana is in this chapter and so is Alexander Kozachenko! I actually missed Alexander from "Damnation." He was a really cool character to me because he stood out as this dude who was a stubborn asshat and then finally joined forces with Leon. I missed Svetlana too who made such a big impression on me. I wanted to continue their stories. Though it is no always happy but I do want to seem after what happened in the movie. 
> 
> Well, without further ado, this chapter.

**Arrivals and Awareness**

There was a sense of tension in Arrkoth, which was interfering with some of the calm they had prior. Most of the human personnel were either used to doing their daily chores and tasks, looking after Tyrants, Lickers, Hunters and other BOWs or the giant tree, Gerechtslinde. Now, the tension was there due to the arrival of new people. One was obviously Svetlana Belikova, former President of the Eastern Slav Republic. Not many people were interested in having her around, even as a research subject. To some, she was a political pariah and ‘misfit.’

It had been known of her rights as a ‘human’ had been temporarily forgone due to her being re-classified by those in power as a BOW. This was also a reason why Svetlana has desperately attempted escape, fearing she would be terminated as termination was being discussed at length. However, the UN interceded in time, saying, due to protests, for and against, Svetlana was still ‘human enough’ in outward appearances and should have basic rights. Of course, this was a work in progress, as The Connections, using Eveline, could have done immense malpractice with that law and some of it had been done.

“Seeming human is not always enough.” Wrote a charter, “We must also look into the subject’s history, their relationships and also if they ever have lived as a human. We understand there may seem to be legal and semantical ‘loopholes’ in this definition. Yet, we can assure people that there is a lot of marked differences between BOWs and humans. Most BOWs have only ever truly been agents in warfare or war relief. Actions that BOWs perform are usually at the behest of other parties. There are have been exceptions to this rule that we have found, and those exceptions have been more or less brought to justice or stopped from causing more harm.”

The Charter continued: “The sentient Tyrants we see today are creating revolutionary legal strides, but it would be some time since we have Tyrants out about and in the open. Svetlana Belikova lived most of her life as a human, she can retain some of those rights, but we recognise she had done irreparable damage, both as a human and converted BOW, to her nation. These were not on the orders of any third party. She did these actions for **herself** and by **herself**. This should be taken into account. Rendering her non-human may also hinder the progress of justice served. It would not allow her to take ownership of her own actions and we cannot let that happen.”

Those were very carefully considered words seeing that Belikova had enhanced herself as the freedom fighters with something similar to the Plagas. It should have mutated her eventually, but it seemed some variant of the A-virus, injected in her twice, as a vaccination, helped almost change the alteration to something bonded with her body. Though, there was ample pain now and then. She also looked with less energy and suffered from depressive spells. She was more emaciated than before thus required cardigans and summer sweaters to keep her cool even in more heated temperatures. She had given a modest wardrobe as it was decided she was to have a kind of special prison. She ate balanced meals and was allowed some alcohol and sometimes more if she stated to the guards she could get them some increased pay and it worked at times.

Still, as a prisoner and once political heavyweight, he wondered what her life has become. She was considered herself more or less a glorified laboratory rat. She had people run tests on her. Take her blood. Once or twice, with our without permission, they locked her in a room with BOWs and tested her strength and resilience. They hacked off parts of her, small always, to see rate of regeneration. Of course, some of those experiments stopped when the UN was pressurised to look into her case more strictly, but they had been there. And, she would sometimes have a hard time sleeping knowing any day she would be subjected to something that would further dehumanise her. An extension, it was always understood, to her own little experiment on herself. Svetlana never considered it as that: she only sought to make herself physically stronger, faster, more alert — and the pain in doing it was now no one asked her about her creature comforts. She was a creature. Now, she was treated as such.

She saw the type of Tyrants once under her command given better treatment than her. She seen it when they had come now and then. They fucking played cards with guards and joked around. It was like she was on some weird, subversive version of _Animal Farm_. She had not expected Tyrants to become much more intelligent and aware. At one point, before the A-virus variant kicked in, she thought she was losing what little left she had of standard humanity. All she wanted to do was fight and maul. Be feral. Now, she missed playing cards and chess. Many guards did not always indulge her. They thought of her some wayward chimpanzee. If she sounded to plead, they would at times mock her and laugh. Seeing a Tyrant play chess with a human guard, drink beer and actually talk as in having a conversation, brought a tear in her eye. She had sobbed. No one really did with her anymore. She had cried before, she usually tried to hide it. She did it again. Crying would help her cause but she did not always wish to be taken as weak. Weakness now may help her somewhat, but she was never going to be truly left alone. She was like a patented science project — someone or the other would always want her contained.

Coming to Arrkoth was strange. That was a world dominated by Tyrants alongside humans. She was in awe at the various types. She learned the Red Hearts were the NE-T guards, almost fashioned after Medieval Knights. Was it a kind of kitsch? She thought on it. Can kitsch transcend cultures into the species of something else? It would be interesting to observe those definitions. Though, she had long lost many of her favourite past-times. She still read voraciously: she was allowed books. She attempted to use her limited web to the maximum effort. Initially, she would see many articles about her. So many calling her a diseased bitch, a BOW slut, Plagas Whore — the last one caught on even though she was not directly linked with the Plagas. Even before her arrival, she had seen an article called ‘The Plagas Whore Lands: Would the BOW-gotten former President need a lot of mollycoddling? – The US needs to put its foot down and give the BOW what she Deserves.”

Of course, calling her a ‘whore’ would be sexist and misogynistic but some publications have lost propriety when it came to her. Also, calling her a ‘woman’ and a BOW seemed to make them squeamish. It had to one or the other for some of those medias and tabloids. Giving her women’s rights would be, it was once even mentioned: “Insulting to human woman, cis and trans, AFAB and femme individuals who had to fight to have their bodies known.” It was contentious speech at best, some said it was another side of radical feminism or sexism, to exclude her. Svetlana knew she may enter the gender the debate. Not in this fashion. Not as female President but as BOW who had become almost genderless and personhood-less, sans identity and basic respect.

Though to her it was not a matter of semantics. She was a woman, identified as such, and being a partial or full BOW, did not really negate that. There had been a lot of female Tyrants as well. But they seemed to have become a race and class of their own. BOW was still reserved for people who were not the new acronyms: Not the Bio-organic Citizens or Peoples; still the ‘weapons.’ Weapons don’t necessarily have rights. Just labels. So, as she was in her fortified van she read her tablet when two of the guards, one human and one Tyrant, talked. They seemed to know each other. The human, named Celio, was talking about how he still had not figured out their mission Ops to Raccoon City. It was strange seeing Raccoon City has been mostly abandoned and sealed off. She heard this Hypnos Tyrant, who had surprisingly a name, Innara, talk about minor redevelopment, regrowth and how people avoided certain ‘hot-spots.’

The world was still so unknown to her it frustrated her. Also, her security detail was heavy and had some good Tyrant and human soldiers. There was always a fear someone would attack. Though, she has, with both some relief and pain, saw she had become ‘old news’ on the internet. She had restrictions but guards who either wanted to mock her or be kind to her, told her so. She wasn’t used to this kind of anonymity. Most of her active life, she had always been on some spotlight. She was an instructor in combat and then also a President. To die out on minor scales. She had not really thought it possible. She had to get used to it. She wasn’t seriously a large issue anymore. Not for the people who made modern day legislation and politics, aside the BOW question. She was yesterday’s news. Svetlana felt odd on it. A touch of sadness. She was a nobody.

Alexander Kozachenko, on the other hand, pardoned by a new government and decorated as a hero. Went back to teaching for a while even while suffering a disability. Given new STEM growth, fostered from BOW growth, and was now again a teacher and an honorary guard, informant and expert on her. He had rarely visited her but was given tabs on her. This was infuriating. Kozachenko was a nobody she was going to crush in her underground base of operations. Now, he called the shots? It seemed like the Twilight Zone for her. Or, Dark Mirror? Well, Dark Mirror was more recent. She had not seen Dark Mirror episodes. She was a bit envious and aware she was getting older. She was already in her sixties and close to her seventies. Maybe, one of the good sides of this would that it may not endure? She was sure her lifespan had been affected seriously by her augments. She didn’t look as strong now and was feeble looking than before. Kozachenko was not speaking to her. Yes, she knew he wouldn’t because she had been indirectly or directly, responsible for killing his fiancé. She may not have held the gun, but the missiles came from an order from her, or her government.

She had not meant to bomb a school. Strategically, it seemed too extreme. Now, with more compassion, she realised she had done a lot of harm when she was in power. It did not excuse her, and she was in some was suffering from it. Though, she had not been alone in those decisions. Her part also lifted her up, wanted her to make extreme decisions but she felt she was taking more responsibility than most of them. Not great. It seemed she had become like an effigy as well, more than a person. Easily flammable and burning her, like burning an incense, caused more satisfaction and yielded results. She looked on the Arrkoth Knights. Kitsch or not: they did look beautiful. More charismatic and alive looking than she had once though. Perhaps, that was also the intent? Making Tyrants as Knights — codes of honour, integrity, dignity, valour, chivalry, and loyalty, maybe even in chastity — seems to personalise them more in a larger scale. Not as bioweapons but individuals in their own right? Aesthetically, they were not offensive either and helped to implement a sense of known in the unknown. Design purposes worked well: they seemed ever vigilant and ready for battle. They were mostly perimeter guards and worked to help the human towns where Arrkoth gained a workforce and supplies. The entire structure seemed planned with thought and dedication even if it may not appeal to all the focus was there.

“We are here, Svetlana.” The voice was one she knew, she hadn’t forgotten. She hated that. It was Alexander, or Buddy, Kozachenko. His look was blank but his voice carried some steel. He looked handsome. Svetlana looked at him. Wearing a suit. It was grey and had a white shirt. It looked made of silk and cotton. It look elegant. She had been so used to seeing him in pictures and in person in dirty fatigues and dirt, that his clean look, in both skin and clothes, seemed odd.

She merely nodded. She did not know what to say to him. She wanted to yell at him in frustration, but she was aware it was stupid to do so as he was not really governing her fate. He did not make decisions on her neither did he look like he cared. He seemed to be here as he knew about her as a freedom fighter and could make the best suggestions on her political past. And he knew Leon S. Kennedy. She heard and it mattered. What was she like before she fell was a good way to know from the source. Other than that, they had doctors who treated her, non-stop, to come into the fray. There was Dr. Hanson, who was young, but became an ‘expert’ in her: in made her cringe as if she was topic in some medical disease journal. Peter Hanson was in his 30s, unmarried and had devoted most of his life to study new medical ventures and BOWs. When he was 28 and youthful and given the task to look after Svetlana Belikova, he jumped right on it. Now, he was here as their major consultant. Like some prized guinea pig, she made this scruffy dark blonde man’s career set.

“Hey, I can escort her. It’s fine.” Hanson came up looking glum; it was clear he did not really approve of Alexander, the other man shrugged and walked away, not really caring, “Are you feeling okay? It’s been a while since you been in car. If I recall it has been two years. We don’t take you out much. I know we should have. Maybe, this will change here?” he smiled at her, Belikova felt unsure, “They have nearby towns that are guarded so we have more things to do.”

“I am not a child, Peter.” She says this, calmly, knowing him, he felt shot down if she did not seem happy on his ideas, sometimes he just treated her like some rescue animal, it was annoying, but she did appreciate some of his care, “You don’t need to plan my day around activities.” Which was true. She liked to be lazy if she could. Spend some time alone, just walking and looking at things and smelling in nature, listening to the river. She missed those things.   
  
“But I do!” Peter was too excited, this alerted Alexander who seemed a bit unsure on what to make of the exchange, “You are a complex person, remember?” he was doing it again, “You are not just some BOW you are a human with wants and needs.” Sometimes, it felt like a form of infantilization, she just didn’t know how to protest, he was way ahead of himself, “You can do this, Svetlana!” She didn’t know what he was referring tp. Do what, exactly? Mix? Fit in? Make Alliances? Make friends? Sometimes, he made less sense than her in fever dreams. Yes, she had them now and then. At one point, she dreamt she became a snake that ate the world but then had to eat herself as she was unsatisfied with her own company. How strangely cryptic.

Alexander noticed their conversation. The high energy of Peter could be enthusing or exhausting. He wondered if this was something that he wanted to be around. He wondered what Svetlana thought of it? — it was strange. He had been used to thinking of Svetlana as an enemy so would always wish to be one step ahead of her and wanted to think in her shoes so to avoid problems when he was with Freedom Fighters. But he was always very liminal on it. He did not really know Svetlana nor cared for it much. All he knew, was that she and her government had killed his fiancé. He wanted vengeance, justice, and rights to be restored. Looking at her now, so emaciated, swearing a shawl around her sweater, trying to ward off the enthusiasm of a younger man who seemed hellbent on making her enjoy herself. He was looking at her again. Not as some despot, but as a woman and a person. It was strange. He never seemed to have thought much on her as a woman or a person aside person of cunning and femme fatale president.

“What is that thing?” Svetlana only jumped a little seeing an Ivy Guardian Drone walk past, helping carry some of their luggage. By luggage, it was mostly lab equipment. Her clothes were a small wardrobe and they carried those to examine them for anything interesting. She had not been afforded much privacy on that matter as they would see her underwear as well if necessary. She had mutations in her better and to better gauge them is to read them as how they were. Yet, Svetlana knows that also defined a form of humanity. Privacy was a commodity given to a person and she was being treated as a non-person in some ways from her exclusion from it. She thought even the Tyrants received most of that right too.

“Oh! Amazing! I am glad to see an Ivy Guardian Drone!” as though they were touring at some historic landmark, Peter took Svetlana’s hand, making Alexander visibly cringe and Svetlana seemed awkward amongst all of them, “You see there is a tree here, a BOW-tree, named Gerechtslinde and the drones are her mates and children. They have genetic variations and they are trying to expand. The BOWs, the Ivy Guardians, have limited lifespans, lives and sentience. They are not at all meant to be treated as individuals as most of them have a hive-brain with her Treee Mother and work accordingly.” He was explaining her some of the things and Alexander had to admit, he did know a lot. Though Svetlana seemed a bit scared by them. Some of the drones, he suddenly noticed, looked at Svetlana differently to them. He was getting the feeling they did not like her.

One of the drones, for a moment, dropped some of the things, and a human soldier went, “Hey, dude, what’s up?” Only to have him screech and scream at Svetlana making her jump and _hiss_ back. It seemed her biology was also triggered. Though she and everyone were equally surprised. She was hissing and snarling back at the drone as an _anima_ l would. She had a hard time to control it. It seemed like some impulse buried in her. She wanted to control her. Tears were prickling in her eyes, if she acted like this, she would easily be re-branded as a non-human.

“Alright there, sweet.” Celio caressed the cheek of the drone, Innara looked impressed, he always had a way with the Ivy Guardians, like some whisperer, “There, there.” The drone was snarling and snapping but Celio seemed to have a hand of them, after a deep moment, the agitation was clearing and the drone, like some large wolf, licked Celio’s hand and cheek and nuzzled into him, “Good man. Don’t worry. She won’t hurt you.” But Celio looked questionable at Svetlana, which made her freeze up, “You won’t right?” he asked of her, Svetlana had also began to sgtop snarling but she looked still a bit feral.

Before she could say anything, Peter was furious, “What the hell? He could have attacked her! That drone is mess! Get it out of here!”

“That is not true.” Celio challenged, “Svetlana has been read as a BOW who has the means and power to hurt us. I seen drones act like this with human charges when aggressive Lickers are around. Gerechtslinde trusts her thus her drones trust us.” His face hardened at Peter, who immediately shut up, “Svetlana has a lot of BOW blood in her and she CAN be an aggressor. It isn’t a drone’s fault to treat someone who is capable of misdeeds as suspects. It is normal security. And, if you are so gonna ask why the Tyrants, haven’t?” Celio looked firm, “Look again.”

It was true. Svetlana had noticed none of the Arrkoth Guards made direct eye contact with her, but some did and they had frowns of their faces and their gaze was militant and vigilant. “Svetlana is an unknown BOW type and other BOWs and Tyrants, including us, don’t know her that well. It will take time for all of us —”

“Svetlana is human.” Peter seemed to be steadfast in that definition and Alexander sighed only for Peter to give him a dirty look surprising the ex-freedom fighter, “She is a human. She looks as us as she was a former president. No Bow as ever been elected as a state official. She is a human with some modifications. That’s all. I don’t care if your Arrkoth _pets_ are antagonistic towards her. She is a person. She looks more human than the drones.”

“That attitude is not going to work here, I assure you.” The cold look Celio gave to Peter, made him nervous, “You want to treat Svetlana Belikova as a human that is cool, but no one here said she isn’t a person. The UN considers her demi-human and that is a good course for us to follow. The evidence, in material light, with the scientific method you scientists teach us laypeople,” Alexander almost snorted he liked this soldier, “That Svetlana Belikova is being treated as a form of BOW or close to it, by the drones and the Tyrants. It does not exempt anything, but the proof is she has a capacity to be dangerous, which the drones have not immediately sensed in us. We are going to work through this and around us but your insistence on ‘definitions’ isn’t going to help us here. The drones didn’t point at her and called her non-human. They just know she can be dangerous. The former president also snarled at them.” He looked at her, “Would you say, your biological makeup, made you do so? Did you feel you were threatened by them?”

“She doesn’t need to answer anything —” Peter looked irked again only for Svetlana to interrupt.

“Yes, my BOW nature, considered them threatening. It happens at times. As I am a mutation, I can see them as strong soldier-like beings who can damage me. They have a matriarch. Perhaps,” she knew this was an edgy territory, “They also seen me carrying variations of a Plagas Queen and so, they seem to also treat me as a matriarchal force and wondering if I trespassed on their mother’s territory?”

All the scientists with them looked so impressed they started whispering amongst themselves. Even some of the wary ones on her presence, looked interested in this phenomenon. Peter was so annoyed it showed on his face. When someone tried to talk to them about this, he just shrugged and refused to engage. Celio was fast learning who to really look out for. Svetlana seemed cooperative, genuinely, without deceit. It was accepting the situation as it comes. Dr. Peter Hanson was treated everything as ha challenge to him, his authority, and his expertise. The blonde looked to be struggling with anger but Celio knew his arrogant type. He saw Innara, the beautiful Hypnos, fawn at him and show him a sweet smile. He had working with him and enjoyed his company. Innara was so interesting with his observations and nuances to people, his tact and appropriate remarks always made him impressed as he felt many people did not even understand basic people’s skills and here was Innara dominated that sphere.

“That is a good question. That gives us a lot to work out on.” Innara chimed in, Celio was appreciative, “I am sure the drones will be eased around you when you show no true danger. They need some time. Sometimes, they also get angsty with Tyrants they thing are aggressive as well. We will all be fine if we keep our boundaries good and just communicate in a calm way.”

“So, are Tyrants the experts now?” Peter was peeved, “Why have me then?”

“Yes, why have you?” Alexander was getting tired, Peter looked insulted, “I know I used to get reports from you and you are an expert on what Svetlana Belikova is going through but we are all new in Arrkoth. We need everyone’s suggestions on what to do right.”

“Wonderfully done, Innara.” It was the voice of Gresham as he walked upon them with Byron as she smiled a bit jarringly at Svetlana. The other woman got a bit scared and decided to focus on Gresham, “You are always an observant one. I would say you would make a fine scientist.” Innara blushed, “I do mean it.” Gresham said after a minor pause, as everyone who knew was wondering if he was just being sarcastic, “It is an honour to meet you, Former President, Svetlana Belikova.” He did a small bow, which was slightly disingenuous, “I am Dr. Alaric Gresham.”

“Well, let’s get to the point. You will not have all your freedoms here. But I am sure you knew that, and you are used to that by now.” Svetlana felt it still hurt in repeating it, “You will have more freedom than before though. You can roam the grounds and walk. I want to get this out of the way. So, you never claim I never told you and feign ignorance.” He was smiling but the steel in his voice was unmistakably and there, it made Alexander and Peter pay close attention alongside Svetlana, “You will be shot maybe even shot to kill if you are ever found somewhere you are NOT meant to be on the grounds. We have discussed this with the UN. You are priority but we have others. If you cannot follow basic rules you will be punished and you will be stripped of your freedoms to move around, indefinitely. You are NOT allowed to visit anywhere outside a given perimeter without an escort. Meaning you are not meant to visit the satellite towns we have. If you ever seen causing a fight you will be restrained with force without much conviction. You cannot begin or end fights without time in a jail cell. You can eat any food you like but we may monitor your diet. You have access to TV and internet but we will monitor some of your net activities. And, if you do join some online forum you will be heavily monitored. Now, we got some of those basics out of the way, I hope you understand. This is a great opportunity for you and things may change considering if you behave well and you show an attitude we can trust.”

“Wait a minute.” Peter walked up to Gresham, who smiled at him and Byron as well, “Shoot to kill? Are you serious? She is a human being!”

“Your outrage is understandable.” Gresham chuckled, “But let me get one thing, straight.” And he turned serious and Innara actually knew what was coming and anticipated it, “You are not in charge here, we are.” He pointed to Byron and himself, “Additionally, human being or not.” He actually walked up to Peter’s face, making him visibly uncomfortable, “Svetlana Belikova has been deemed a criminal and in some ways this is also her prison. A human criminal in many nations have lesser rights. You should understand that making her do whatever she wants is against our safety as well as her own. Say, some people sneak in undetected, which is unlikely, but every logical scenario is a scientist’s guidebook, and say they attack her and she kills them or they kill her. Who would be made responsibly for that?” He challenged with fiery eyes.

“You.” Peter nervously answered.

“Wrong novice. Both of us.” Gresham smiled again, “You, for insistence on her humanity to the point of erasing what she has done and what augments she has in her body and reality she is a political prisoner back in Europe with enemies. Your lack of erasing that some people don’t take her as a human and the dangers of speciesism based on that context. And my hypothetical stupidness taking your ideas and thoughts as the only law of the land.” Peter knew it was idiotic to answer back to that unnerving smile, “Listen here. You are around to help us with information, not to valiantly white knight Svetlana Belikova, understood?”

Celio snorted but excused himself and Innara stifled laughter. Alexander saw the beautiful blonde woman, but she seemed to be smitten and happy with what Gresham was saying. Still, her creamy skin, manicured fingernails and her beautiful face and body was getting to him. It had been long since he had been with anyone and he sometimes missed the passion and companionship that came with being with someone. Her legs, thin yet strong, wrapped around the pencil skirt. She wore an egg white suit a strong base, like stone, that contrasted well with her creamy ivory skin. She had long limbs, almost sinuous and the red shirt she wore inside flashed against the flush of her skin. She was quite gorgeous. Her blue-grey eyes, almost white and silvery as a Tyrant’s, her straight hair now open, long and in lovely steps. She had a beautiful posture as well. Her shoes were red and small heeled. She seemed to have come dressed also for the occasion of meeting a former president. Though, a labcoat clung her body with her ID on it, clinging to a pocket with modest, yet lovely breasts. He did mean to gaze, but he had been away from most of the happenings of life. The woman’s beauty with her flawless skin and face was heavy to him. She did not seem too into Gresham aside the showings of a camaraderie with him. She brushed her hair aside and it made his gut squirm.

He looked at Gresham and wondered on him. The man was more elegant and beautiful than the scruffy Hanson. His handsomeness was in his features and the way he gestured. His body also seemed a bit more sculpted than a regular scientist. Like Byron, he seemed to have worked out on his body as well. Byron crossed her legs as she stood and Alexander glimpsed a bit and when she smiled at him, he wanted to turn away but gave a smile back to the beautiful woman. She seemed interested in him, which was quite unexpected. She was more glamorous than his fiancé, who had been a long limbed, petite built brunette, whose body was supple, smooth, and soft. She had some freckles on her skin, which he always kissed. There had been sex with women, the casual and not extraordinary. And, when liberation happened, he had been paralysed. Getting back his limbs meant he also got back his libido. He had only time to have one or two casual encounters. They both were meagre as he was not fully recovered, and he had to take it slow. His disabilities had made him cautious rather than always adventurous.

Now, seeing Byron, he could feel stirrings of his once ‘hibernating’ sexuality. He was a bit bi-curious. After what happened to him, being in a disabled body in peace times, allowed him to question and understand more about himself. He mainly preferred women, but an occasional male did not matter to him. He was somewhat frightened as he had been away from people for so long. The fear of rejection, alongside the fear of _acceptance_. Would she be kind to him? Would she understand he was not always spry, and it took longer to be more physically aroused? Was he kidding himself? A beautiful woman like her would have so many suitors. Why should he shame himself in even trying? — Why should he shame himself in not? If she shows interest at him, he should ask her at least to a date. No strings attached. No, expectations. Just a dinner and date with a beautiful woman. A man could want companionship and conversation with someone he found beautiful.

“Yeah, she had always been a looker.” It was the voice of Celio who interrupted him, he knew he was subtle but the other man had caught his gaze, “You know she has highs and lows of popularity. Dr. Yvonne Byron is somewhat cold and unfeeling. Some say frigid in emotion. But ‘frigid’ is also a fuck-all anti-woman term at times. I think she knows what she’s got and she won’t peddle it away for free. Mad respect for that. But yeah, when she first started, I heard so many people made passes at her. I mean, it is annoying as fuck to be a female scientist always being flirted on by most men and also some women. Most people had to be shut down. She is kinda scary and seemed unemotional, but I think it’s just her way. People want her to be kind, bright, friendly and open, but most people won’t be the same. They expect that because she is a woman. I don’t think I have seen many people talk smack about Gresham being an unpredictable one. Well, not as much.”

“I, uh.” He was a talker, the handsome soldier, Alexander had become so quiet in his later years. He had been a jovial youth, played sports and also loved talking to students and being a teacher. Nowadays, he was so quiet. He still taught but he knew he was not always committed to it. It was a strange experience going back to the classroom. He had some PTSD issues with it as he had to calm himself and take his medication. He was now part-time as he also was an advocate for human rights. He did not know where he stood with BOWs. He had wanted to say Svetlana Belikova was not a human being. That she had perverted her body, far from humanity, she could NOT be trusted. At present, he was not sure about the demarcations, the openings. Maybe, he needed to revise himself. “I am…she is very beautiful, yes. A woman like her, a person like her, would get a lot of attention.”

“Yeah, I talk a lot. That is why I get along with Innara. He seems patient with me.” Celio pointed to the Hypnos Tyrant who had watched them with a smile, though he definitely checked out Alexander Kozachenko. Alexander was so perplexed. A Tyrant? Checking him out? The last time he met a Tyrant, he had to watch the Titan class ones kill the Lickers he commanded and his comrades and beat the shit out of Leon Kennedy. He had to come to the rescue with a tank and together with Leon, blew off the Tyrant’s head. Seeing a Tyrant, not as an enemy, as a _being_ of _interest_ showing him _interest_ was not something he had imagined. Yes, Tyrants were a bit more out in the open now, but he had not really been introduced to any. They knew of his past and decided to segregate it from any necessary complications. “My name is Celio Kobayashi.”

“Alexander Kozachenko, is a pleasure.” Alexander shook his hand; the grip was stronger than his and made no mistake the other man was a soldier.

On the same ground, Peter felt humiliation crawl in, not something he felt in a long time. He was a bit red faced, but less angry, he did not see himself as a man messing with Gresham and the blonde bombshell next to him. Byron had condescendingly smiled at him, reminding him, she was above him in this place, “Yes. I understand.” Though he meekly protested, with respect to their station, “Please understand. Miss Svetlana Belikova has been not always given fair treatment back in Eastern Europe. I was hoping she would be respected here as one of us.” The word had a strong ring to it, which made some Arrkoth Knights look tense and Innara look supremely annoyed, “Treating her solely as BOW may dishonour our very humanising and humanitarian mission of helping former Madame President. International relations will prosper for such.”

“I am well aware that the Eastern Slav Republic can’t be assed with her.” Gresham speaks this a bit curtly, yet not so rude, “You know they would be pleased with a bullet in her head and having her done in.” Svetlana shook a bit in fear, she wanted to stop feeling nervous and scared, but she couldn’t help it, she was at the _mercy_ of these people, anything they did would not be considered a violation, she was imagining all the horror of those implications as they were treating her as some ward of theirs.

“To them, she is a war criminal. And the powers that be of the UN, Russia and US, also consider her as such.” Svetlana felt so alone, she knew what Gresham was speaking was the truth, “However,” Peter and everyone saw the pause, “What they also forget that Svetlana reached out to the Elders and all of them folded before she eradicated them and wanted to join the UN and the EU.” This mad Alexander feel cold, the word ‘eradicate’ was strong, but so was…the truth that the Elders had betrayed him, Svetlana was truthful to him, “Seeing she could not have easily triumphed without them folding. I don’t take her as the only criminal. Like many, she had help. The politics of this situation is messed up as it always is. So, I get it. You are fond of your patient.” This Gresham jabs in and Byron chuckles making Peter become red, “We are accommodating her the best way possible. But we need rules, structures, and guidelines. She is still a criminal and demi-BOW. That is the truth. If she causes harm due to our carelessness, we are all culpable.” Gresham speaks the last sentence lightly, almost bored, as if he did not care of such an accountability.

“Dr. Hanson.” Byron finally spoke up,, her voice was silky and lovely, Alexander noticed, “You do know that the guidelines for protecting Former President Belikova also are a means to a safety to her as we have explained. She is a contentious person of interest or BOW of interest. Did you not see the online reports of the mobs? Wanting her extradition? Some people want her to leave as soon as she landed. Some protests were stopped thanks to our Arrkoth Knights. But peaceful protest is allowed and your windows were tinted but a group had come in the morning to air their anger at holding her in the US. Some of their comments, even if we do not fully agree, are reasonable. She is a war criminal and a woman who made modifications on her own body. She can be a danger to the basic population even in Arrkoth.

“Do not press further on this. We will see what happens and we will act accordingly. Dr. Gresham has been polite and understanding of you in a way I won’t be.” She put the hammer down coolly, it impressed most of the spectators, “What we need is logic, dedication and care to the whole of the Facility. Not just one or two people. We understand the importance of International Relations. We have our Legal, Ethics and Relations Teams always on those things. We have declined Press wanting pictures of Svetlana Belikova’s pictures and numerous calls for interviews. We knew this was wrong. To make her like a circus animal. So, trust us. We do our jobs well. Mis Belikova, will be treated with care and respect. We take care of many. Mostly Tyrants and BOWs. She can be assured we will treat her well.”

Yvonne looked at Svetlana, “I am sure you are okay with some of our measures?”

“I…” Svetlana did not expect her to ask her anything, “I, yes. I know it is not ideal. But I do not wish to cause any trouble and I do Thank you allowing me to come here.” She spoke with the eloquence Alexander had seen her execute as a president. It was not a lie though. She seemed to be a bit more peaceful now when people were not talking _around_ her.

“Very well.” Byron smiled but then looked coldly at Hanson, “There is no reason for you to be always her voice box.”

“I agree.” Gresham nodded, fixing himself up, and nodding respectfully to Belikova who nodded back as he walked off.

“She isn’t your _pet_. She is a woman after all.” It was a jab Byron gave that made many seem to give some murmuring agreement, “You speak of _her_ freedoms yet _talk_ for her a tad bit too much.”

Peter blushed in some embarrassment and some anger. “Well, I. I only mean well.” He says this with renewed confidence, “I am thorough.”

“Good. Let us get her settled in.” She smiled, “I am Dr. Yvonne Byron. I am usually in charge of the Gerechtslinde Tree. But I will also be overseeing and being in charge, with two of my colleagues, on Miss Belikova.” She made it a point to look at Peter as she said this, after all, he wasn’ty fully in charge anymore. He was unreadable but Alexander knew he was displeased. He wondered about him. The way he had been talking to Svetlana seemed so familiar, almost intimate, caring and imposing. Alexander had a feeling the Dr. Hanson was not fully trustable.

What puzzled him is Svetlana tolerating him. She didn’t seem to always enjoy how and what he talked on but she didn’t seem to protest much. There was things going on there he didn’t know. Or, maybe wished to know. He had been happy in his life staying far away from Svetlana, only getting occasional reports on her. He wanted to move on in his life. But they decided to ask him to come along as he was the Freedom Fighter to helped bring her down. They wanted a psychological profile and he was the right guy for the job. In truth, he also wanted to come because his friend, who Leon also knew, J.D. There wasn’t a day truly that went by when he did not think about J.D., his friend, who got infected by the Plagas and turned into an infected human. It hurt him to know all of this war, all of this fighting had made J.D. another victim of the chaos.

Well, aside J.D., Alexander has some hazy memories of Leon. He knew Leon was the man who saved him. Even if the information was classified initially, it came to light Leon had helped exposing Belikova and her government’s illegal bio-weapons trading and experimentation. Though the information was not public it had been given to him. He had written to Leon several times and they had had some net calls to recall what happened. When he recalled many things he was more than happy to keep in touch with Leon. Now, he was going to meet him after so many years. He wondered what Leon thought.

“Buddy.” He recognised Leon’s voice as he turned to look at the lovely-haired brunette, always with the great hair, look at him, “Nice to see you again.” The nickname, ‘Buddy’, was the one J.D. always called him by. Leon had remembered. He sometimes went by ‘Alex’ now too. But ‘Buddy’ had warmth in it. He missed being called by that name.   
  
Celio decided to walk away with Innara. Giving the two men some privacy. Leon went in and before he knew it Alexander went and hugged him tight. It took a minute, but Leon hugged him tightly back at well. “Look at you!” Alexander looked at him, his eyes bright, but he could see Leon was a bit more grizzled and sadder than they last met in person, so many years ago as they fought Tyrants and found a way out, “Still sturdy as ever.” It was true. The alert and observant eyes and gaze of Leon, with the handsome features of his way, though roughened, was there, “I am so glad you are here.”   
  
“I am too.” Leon smiled at him, Alexander has been so suspecting of him back in the Eastern Slav Republic, had punched him, had been mostly annoyed and uncertain, now he looked fresh-faced, _Perhaps, this is the way J.D. always saw him_ , Leon recalled, _See, Buddy is finally happier_ , J.D. “I hope the flight was okay? How was…?” he subtly gestured at Svetlana Belikova, who walked with Peter’s arm around her shoulder, as if being protective, both Leon and Alexander noticed.

“Yeah, she is…. A lot less trouble.” Alexander admitted.

“I remembered fighting her and she was a tough broad.” Leon looked at her back, “Well, she looks more pale than I remembered her. No one expected her to be alive all this time. I guess she is still a tough broad.”

“She won’t be too much trouble. She seemed fine with your Dr. Gresham’s protocols.” Alexander explained, “I think all I need to do is give first-hand accounts of also what we faced and what we know about her.” He stretched his arms, “Also, I am here to make sure I get enough physiotherapy.”

“Yeah, I think they just wanted you in as you have dealt with her in her ‘presidential days.’ Any information is good information. Besides, there are a lot of Elite Tyrants here.” Leon looked at Peter holding Svetlana a bit too close and telling her more about the Ivy Guardians. Svetlana seemed to be too quiet. Perhaps, uninterested but listening to the man, nevertheless. The questionable dynamic was also spotted by others, but no one seemed to care much and thought of Peter Hanson as just some weirdo enthusiast for his job. Leon wondered though. It seemed Svetlana was too tired from the journey and did not mind Hanson’s help.

“Yeah, I noticed.” Alexander looked some of the Blue Diamonds, tall Elite Tyrants, like Slevin and Veles, walk around and give them some bored looks, “Arrkoth seems to have many different types of Tyrants. I never truly looked into it as much as I should. I knew Tyrants were BOWs like Lickers. But they seem more refined and skilled. I know some of the physiology and biology of Elite Tyrants like the ones we fought. But these Tyrants do seem more upgraded, more aware.” Alexander noticed two of them eating a bag of potato chips, “Almost like —”

“People. Yeah, trust me. When I first thought of it that way. It was hard for me to understand too. You won’t believe this but many of the newer Tyrant versions are _people_. They don’t seem like cold machines born to kill. I mean the ones we fought were such a leap from Mr. X, I always wondered about how angry or pissed or surprised they look.:” Leon spoke also looking at the two eating chips. The fanfare around him had been a bit quelled a bit. Though, he was getting still a plethora of gazes and stares from many of them. Some of the Tyrants, definitely reocgnised Alexander Kozachenko. Maybe, Buddy didn’t know about this? If he didn’t, it would be hard to break that down.

“I didn’t expect her to come in so soon. Time goes by when you are having fun.” The voice stopped both men to look UP. A very lithe, muscular _female_ Tyrant was looking down at them. Leon was amazed at how quietly, seeing she was a Titan class, had come up to them. Her hair was a lovely shade of silver and black and she looked at her manicure pink nails. She was wearing purple lipstick. Leon knew Vanessa. She had slightly mean to Naia a few times in the past. But that seemed to have died down. “Oh, Hi there Alexander Kozachenko.” She plopped down, supporting herself on her legs as she crouched, “I am Vanessa.”

“Nice to…meet you…” Alexander was surprised she knew his name, and this was one of the first times he had seen a _female_ Tyrant, she was quite pretty, with his confidence and her body. Tyrants had been called ‘attractive’ by many online, but it was still a bit taboo to think of them as _gorgeous_ or _beautiful_ from where he had come from. Many people had a species prejudice and wanted to stick to ‘regular’ humans. One of the reasons he had been quiet was some people did not like him also for his previous Plagas augment, which Leon had to shoot away and in turn had paralysed him. Even now, as he walked, with careful steps and coming to Arrkoth to also be observed and have physiotherapy, he knew a lot of people did not think it was great to get a biological assistance as such. Some found it unfair he had due to his role as a freedom fighter when other freedom fighters got less. Others, just found it too much of a tampering with the human body. Either way, Alexander knew to say this Vanessa was beautiful, was a socially ousting move in some of the communities he heralded from.

“I know.” She smiled at him, “I am usually a joy to be around.” Leon coughed and Alexander had to literally blush. This Tyrant knew a way with words, “So, welcome to the US.” She winked at him, he had to look at her purple leotard and combat boots and ripped stockings. She was quite a beauty. Confident, sexy and strong. Her strength was not hidden. Those muscles look they could easily rip him apart with ease. She was also wearing a purple flower bow on her head. She spread her legs a bit as to balance herself and just peered down on him, “So, what do you wanna do first? Now, that you are in The States?”

“I was just hoping to get caught up with Leon.” He motioned but he did find himself looking at her wonderful, purple eyes, most Tyrants he saw had white, “I mean,” he looked at Leon, “I think he is fine with that.”

“I think she wants something.” Leon got aware as he looked at Vanessa, “So, come out with it.” He smiled.

“I wanna see how both good you guys are in combat.” She looked at her nails, her legs still stretched apart, balancing herself on her core as if it was nothing, “How about it?”  
  


“Wait, what?” Leon asked, “Is that allowed? You know he is —” he stopped when Alexander one of his classic ‘what’ looks. He knew that look because he remembered in the Underground Factory all those years when he saw an elevator acting up and he said, ‘Why is it doing that?’ and he gave the same look that time as well. He got bearing back and almost snapped at Vanessa, “You do know right, he is injured?” He is huffing now, “What are you playing at?”

“You wanna say ‘Damned Tyrant’ don’t you?” Vanessa giggled. Alexander looked at her. She was so playful, teasing and yet so challenging he was quite amazed at the _depth_ of personality she had. Clearly, he knew NOTHING about present Tyrants and needed to update himself about them. And he was thankful this gorgeous firebomb came up so that he could see and learn a bit more about Tyrants in general.

“No. I was close to it though.” Leon smirked, but then went again, “Why are you doing this though? Won’t this get you into trouble?”

“I have my reasons.” Vanessa looked at her nails for a bit as if contemplating if she has had them sharpened, “For me, the best part is to see legendary _heroes_ in action.”

“I am not a hero.” Leon balked at the way she said it too, but Alexander laughed. It was fun seeing someone not take him _seriously_. Everywhere Alexander went, people treated with respect, but they also treated him as a detached being, a former BOW-like human, a war-hero, someone who stood against the oppressor, one of the only ones who actually stepped up when the Elders listened to Svetlana and caved in when she was supposed to share oil profits with them. He felt he lost an everyday quality of himself. To just be. And now this gorgeous Tyrant was telling him he could just be and that it didn’t matter if he was some war-hero or not. All she wanted was to challenge him and that was she was doing.

“Oh c’mon, Kennedy.” She looked seriously at him, “You know very well you are a survivor. And, in this world, sometimes a hero is a survivor.” She says this by paying loads of attention to them. “Besides.” She let that settle in as she continued, Alexander realised this Tyrant could be a great politician and a great public relations person, “I think you know people call you a hero because you have also bested a lot of Tyrants and BOWs. You have investigated, thought carefully, did not do stupid shit. What I am saying is that there is respect in a job well done.”

Leon looked at her, “You know you are less serious when Naia is around. Didn’t you trip her a month ago in the hall?”

“Yeah, I did. That bitch is harder than she thinks. She grabbed me and caught me off guard and got me down with her. I like that. All I thought was that she was cute and a stupid. But I wanna know her better. After all, there is no reason for me not to.” Vanessa looked happy and Alexander wondered who this Naia was.

“Weren’t you pissed that some people like her?” Leon commented, folding his arms. And, again, Alexander gave the look he didn’t know who this Naia person was.

“Yes, but only partially. I think Tyrants as stupid as humans. They have their own fetishes and they do enjoy human fat as a fat Tyrant is very rare. It is easy to objectify your Naia, because she seemed nice, dumb, hollow, shallow and a fat, queer thing.” As Vanessa talked, Alexander wondered if it was appropriate to say ‘a fat, queer thing’ but noticed Vanessa spoke it as a compliment, “You see it is normal for someone to be not that attractive to be attractive somewhere else. It happens. I seen it with myself. Some people adore me, just of myself, as I am a Tyrant. Some people adore me as a Tyrant with style. Some people like me as they think I have something to offer. Sex is still a thing that humans offer, and it always scares humans seeing a Tyrant offering the same. Being sexual. Exploiting the norms, the roles, the femme performances, they thought so remarkably reserved for their own species. To pull that, limn it out, for my own, is something they have never expected. It is because, they do not think I would have the tendency, the choice or the knowledge and taste for it. It scares them but they enjoy it. They know they can put me on some grotesque pedestal or some stripper pole. When I am not what they want me to be I see they hate me. When I ask them things for myself, show my tastes and stuff, they get annoyed. Humans face that too — they enjoy their loud and quiet fantasies of other humans. They do not enjoy if Galatea asks something back. So, I had to see what kind of ‘cute thing’ was Naia. Did she have things to offer? Or, was she just some fetishist fantasy. Of course, there could be lack of a one answer. It all depends. But knowing more than others is always a fun thing to be had.”

Every time this Tyrant would speak, Alexander felt such a way of communication and wisdom, yes _wisdom_ , which he realised was also her way of showing-off but also a way of expressing herself, and she seemed to have been blunter and more open than many people who he had engaged with. It was sad because he knew where she was coming from. When people had met him after his accident, he has been given compassion and also accolades. But he was very alone. ‘Care’ was missing. Knowing him as a person was missing. He had been reduced to hero freedom fighter, disabled activist, and a teacher, under guidelines of the new government. His role has been static, unengaging, taken in doses from a safe distance. No one seemed to really know him anymore. No one seemed that interested. He was one of the few survivors of the old regime. JD and Ataman had died. Irina, his fiancé, no longer there and dead for some years. He felt like a stranger and also weird form of outcast. Someone who was there but not. Perhaps, this Tyrant felt the same way? He was not sure.

“Even so.” Leon was firm, “Buddy here is recovering. I don’t want him to get hurt.”

“And now you decided if I am meant to be safe or if I am hurt?” Alexander snorted out, surprising Leon and making him go quiet. He had seen this face of Alexander when they had been ‘enemies’ (well, Buddy insisted but Leon was not at all in those definitions).

“No. Be pragmatic.” He pointed out, “You are here for physiotherapy. If you get fucked up again, that would also be an international issue.”

“No. I don’t think so. If something happened to Svetlana, THAT would be an international issue.” Alecander challenged, “I am willing to write a consent of waiver if necessary. But I wish to do something aside that just being around. If this Tyrant tells me she wants to see what I can do. Well, I wanna try it out. Besides, she is not trying to kill us off.” He gave her a look and she smiled almost as a sign of ‘no’, “So, I am sure she will play fair and hard and we can as well.” He gave her a look and she nodded.

“Buddy, this is…” Leon had not faced any of the Tyrants even some had openly challenged him. He had had too much adrenalin-filled moments in his life and didn’t need more. Also, he knew he was popular among the Tyrants, like Jill, but Jill has been also openly pushing away Tyrant requests. Though, she seemed more interested than him. He was, well, unsure. Seeing her smiling form though, this female Tyrant, and Alex’s insistence on it, he was just worried he would not be well, able to shake it off.

“C’mon, it’s been a while.” Alexander seemed too happy to resist. Leon understood. He just wanted to do a lot more.

“Sure. BUT…” he emphasized, “Lady,” he called Vanessa and she was amused, not thinking it as an offence, “You shouldn’t be out there to decimate us. I know you can. But let’s call this a ‘friendly fire’, alright?”

“Sure. We should,” Vanessa looked immensely happy.

Svetlana had been walking away and she had reached in to the entrance of Arrkoth. She was turning back two times and saw Alex and Leon, engrossed in a conversation with a Tyrant. Even Celio and the other Tyrant was with them. She was wondering what was going on, “Where is Alexander Kozachenko?” she asked, meekly and politely.

“I think he went to talk to staff. We shouldn’t bother.” Peter smiled, “We should get you settled in.”

“But I wish to know where they are going.” Svetlana protested, when she saw that Vanessa and Leon and Alex were heading off in another direction and Vanessa yelling “It’s on!” and some Tyrants, including Celio and Innara going with them.

“Wait, What?” Peter asked, “We should get you settled in.”

But Svetlana, for the first time in a long time, broke away from him, not hearing his protests and followed them and the security seemed to get what she was doing and so just followed her. Peter was calling her, but she did not seem to notice. She seemed to be curious as the others. Curiosity — she had missed the feeling of it.

There seemed to some training grounds on the first floor. They were separated from the gardens and courtyards. But they were easily accessible. This one had two towers, command posts. A tank was there. It was a miniature and seemed to be also Tyrant hardy. The perimeter was surrounded by some rogue Lickers. They all seemed rabid and very aggressive. Lickers in colonies hardly wenty rogue or went out to attack other humans or BOWs. These were imported Lickers caught in violent areas and were now here for command and practice purposes. Killing them was permitted, not torturing them or letting them to die painfully. The Section, Prime Nova, was a small testing area that tested people’s stealth and infiltration. The exercise was to make sure you have captured fcoru flags out of five of two opposing teams. There was a larger audience box. Prime Nova happened almost every weekend or close to it. Some of the teams were very popular and lucrative, as betting was allowed to a small degree. This one was unscheduled and was Vanessa on her own against Leon and Alexander. It was going to be interesting.

A referee, and Ivy Guardian had appeared. The drones also made part of the combat. These drones had enlisted. Most were close to death anyways and it was sometimes better for them to go down in a line of duty. Still similar rules applied. No one was allowed to kill them in horrible ways just for show. When the whistle was started some human audience, members started recording as the Tyrants all cheered. Vanessa had gotten THE Leon Kennedy to have a match with her. Many were saying they always knew she was quite resourceful. Also, now that Buddy has showed up, stakes were higher. Some betting immediately started. Svetlana was called over by Celio and Innara. She immediately quickly ran to them and sat herself down. The tension was high but she was enjoying it. She never thought her first day at Arrkoth would have so many things going. Peter did not know where she went and had to sit with some other guards. He was so angry. Svetlana had not been without him for years and the chance she could she just took it. He felt annoyed and felt like bringing her to The States had been a bad idea. After all, in Eastern Europe, she had been happy to be with him. Or that is what he had been thinking all the time.

The flags were not all situated in the towers for this exercise as Vanessa had no one else in her play and she refused any other Tyrant or human to join her. She was hellbent on doing this on her own and no one was standing in her way. Though one flag of each team was on the tower. It would come on when other flags had been distributed. The tech helping with the controls, Cindy, positioned three flags all over. Blue Team was Leon and Alex and Purple Team was Vanessa. Alexander wore his vest and changed and took off his suit jacket. Leon was already wearing a tactical turtleneck, so he also wore a vest. Alex immediately loaded up on flashbangs, like his instinct was on fire. Leon noticed.

Even if Alexander was now a teacher again, his time as a soldier, the knowledge he has, had become muscle memory. It was hard to erase it, as he had been so good at evasion and was always on the move. He probably was better at this exercise than Leon. Though evasion and reconnaissance were skills Leon had picked up immensely as FBI agent in the field. He had been re-trained from the Rookie cop ages ago. Leon got out some knives. He had become better at them. He got a Lightning Hawk and also a basic handgun. He stoked up on bullets. They were less explosive and hurtful than regular ammo. Hurting Tyrants unnecessarily was also parts of the guidelines. He got a semi-automatic just in case. Alexander got a rifle. He seemed more content with one piece of weapon as of now aside his basic handgun. He had many gas grenades as well.

Soon as the whistle and bell rung, they moved as a unit. They seemed to trust each other, watching each other’s back. The Towers were empty now and now artillery had been deployed. Cindy was mindful. She was the tech responsible to keep all of them safe and to keep up the flags. A Licker seemed to be running along the lines angry and alert. Leon decided to shoot at another direction, so it got distracted and go over there. Though he was careful as they hid among the trees. There were some guard posts they could also use. They were tall enough to hide Tyrants. Vanessa may be among them. The rules of the game were to easily catch flags. Incapacitation gained some points, but it was not the goal of Prime Nova. Before Leon could say anything, Alex decided to run and break their unit. It was a choice he would have also made. They needed to split up. Leon scouted for Vanessa. She was nowhere to be seen. For a Titan class Tyrant, she was VERY good at keeping herself hidden. He only saw Licker movement among shrubberies. Vanessa was out of sight.

Alex moved cautiously, at a slow crawl, pacing himself. He could hear Lickers here and there but knew they also had collars on so they could be shocked. Their heat signatures was available to Cindy, the tech. She also had aerial view of them. The electronic drones were keeping track of all of them. So, she knew were Vanessa was. She was hiding behind a tree. Barely moving. She was looking at the area, known to her, trying to think where the flags had shown up, She then moved towards the small artificial lake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am enjoying writing a bout Vanessa as well. She had a whole story for her so I know she will be more than just a 'pretty face.' Her story went under some revisions but I am happy to say I am more aware on what to do with her now more than ever. Yes, she started out as some annoying bitchy Tyrant. But I knew I wanted to do more with her. Also, being bitchy and all of that, has its reasons. I mean, there is always a reason. I like Vanessa. I wanna say even if she is somewhat disliked in Arrkoth for her intensity I do like her and think she is very genuine, intelligent and driven. Aside her beautiful looks, she has a lot to offer. Wonder who would seriously get that ;) 
> 
> And yeah, Poor Alex, crushing on Byron. You know that has a lot of tragedy written all over that. Which makes it more interesting. Alex is a kind man, a freedom fighter. And he is crushing on someone who is a horrible, sociopath in some ways. I know what their dynamic is going to be if there is one. And, well. That is important. I am writing some troubling stuff in the latest chapters. I knew I would. Those Warnings are there for a reason. Everything is not always going to be alright for the characters. Some people do get hurt. But that just helps keep the story moving forward. 
> 
> I always wanted to create an immersive world with the Arrkoth Universe. I hope I am succeeding with that. Please, review. I would appreciate the feedback.


	19. Prime Survival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter was difficult to write at the end. I am not gonna lie. I felt like I didn't wanna get too detailed and I was really unhappy for the character in question. But I knew I was going this direction because of what was hinted in the last chapter. There was a big hint about it. And, well, sometimes, people around can see it later or read into it, without knowing the whole. 
> 
> WARNING: THIS CHAPTER HAS SOME GRAPHIC SEXUAL ASSAULT SCENES BY THE END. PLEASE BE WARNED

**Prime Survival**

The area of Prime Nova changed a lot to make Tyrants use their deductive skills but this one was somewhat familiar to her. She thought the lake, quiet and rumbling, may have a flag or two. But she had to be careful. Lickers or Ivy Drones may screech at her and give her away. She had heard a bullet not long ago and and saw a Licker run along it. She knew Leon and Alex were here but she also knew they were not fighting anything yet. Their bullet fire was also to lead away the Licker and also keep her away. Good move. But she was not going to engage with them unless necessary. Part of the game was that home teams could relocate their flags or make themselves targets by carrying them. It gave a nice edge. Yet seeing that they had no idea to gauge what would happen they were taking it slow. She sensed in Alexander a need to WIN. Which was magnified by the fact he had been AWOL from any form of combat in years, unlike Leon, who always had to be in combat. This was a strange but an interesting dynamic. It could reveal a lot of things to her. After all, not all veterans wanted to be back in action and not all of them enjoyed fighting Tyrants. That was a given. Some just wanted to retire from that life. Vanessa wondered about that. Retirement was a human right. It wasn’t something a Tyrant had. She envied that right. To be beyond “useful” for a Tyrant. That was something she never heard of.

A Licker passed her by. She knew how to be extra quiet around them. Many Tyrants don’t care. They startle Lickers and give away their positions very quickly. Lickers were a good way of showing where you were for as they eventually get your direction and scent they keep on following you. They are blind mostly. Of course, new Lickers seem to have more of a sensory organ related to vision, but vision did not really make a Licker. The ones adapted to the dark here in Arrrkoth, like mole rats, have showed them they did not really care much for light aside a few flora that helped them get their vitamin D. Though that colony was small in some ways. Lickers thrived in the dark but it also depended on what types they would become. Vanessa had gotten used to them ambling around, their shrieking voices and the way they attacked anyone and anything for both food and protection. They were clearly no longer human. The T-virus had bastardised them and change their entire genome. This had been confirmed by scientists and legislated by the UN. Even Tyrant types may have started with something like the human genome, but they were not human. That was a given. The semblances and differences were there. You could see it. She had seen the charts many a times.

Though related as ‘distant cousins’ they had the sentience close to humans, which was wider than apes. It was always interesting. In NE-Ts, due to their parasites, their consciousness had something akin to bicameralism, but not as simple as that. They could distinguish between parasite thoughts and their own but some of their OWN thoughts were fused. This was psychologically a bit different from Tyrants like her but similar in some ways as the T-virus in her also affected her consciousness in some ways. She had some impulses a human would not have. More wired alert instincts and impulses to attack and protect. A heightened awareness, sometimes the world slowed down and she could see in what was termed as an ‘adrenalin haze.’ This haze was quicker and prolonged in her type of Tyrant, the Elite or Titan, and not in NE-Ts. T-103s had the ability to ‘separate cognitive inputs’, meaning organising their thoughts in thought bundles that she and the NE-Ts would have a harder time doing.

The Hypnos were able to ‘dolphin’ their minds and brains at times. Some of their neural networks also patched up in their arm, the one with the claw, meaning they can ‘load shed’ thoughts or literally put a topic in their hand, like putting it at bay and then put it back up for thinking. They have a network with their body and cognition thus their arm helps. When their arms are hurt too bad they may have some mental impairment. Though it can be assuaged a bit. Tyrant Rs had the similar function as T-103s but they could do it longer and literally shut down some of their emotions for a few moments and do a logic input feed. This could be helpful and unhelpful. It may maximise empathy in some cases but also an empathetic lack or an emotion lack did not mean it would not come back later. Ever action had consequences on the biological scale. This happens also with humans.

As Vanessa walked around the Lickers, she knew she was doing a good job. Neither Leon or Alexander had found her. Though they been doing a good job as well. She had not seen them at all. She heard a rustle a few times but one time it had been a Licker and another time it had been a drone walking around aimlessly for death. The audiences were all cheering quietly, the tension was so palpable. They knew to some extent where everyone was but they had no way of really informing the participants. They were a good deal away. No cheating. Svetlana had no idea the game could be this intense. She did not even know who she was properly rooting for. Soon, she heard a gunshot, Vanessa heard it too. It was near her location and she could ignore it. But then there was a fire again and Vanessa, looked ready. She was edging a bit on the periphery of those sounds, wondering what it meant. Was it a diversion? Or, a charge? She did not know. She was sure Leon or Alexander did not know where she was as of yet. She snickered lowly as she kept on her path to go to the lake. Then she was nearing it and heard the sound again. She could not hear any communication from any radio or cell phone. She did not have teammates for this match, so she was sure she did not need any communication. She did however gotten some smoke grenades herself and some jammers. These were allowed and she had placed two in some hidden places in the trees and shrubberies. Leon and Alexander must have noted this as they would not be able to give each other any heads up in any places.

She was walking along and could hear the water. She knew was making a good pace. When she heard another gunshot, a few meters away from her she was sure it was Leon or Alex, hunting the Lickers and drones. What she did not expect was a Licker suddenly coming out of the bushes surprising her and Leon running along and giving a smoke grenade and firing at the Licker, enraging it and having it claw at Vanessa’s feet. Vanessa was a bit impressed but as the Licker gave some heavy cuts of her feet she had to push back and step on it. Smashing it into pulp. She snarled and saw that Leon was trying to get one of her flags, his flags, away from her. She broke at a speed too and he fired a few times with his handgun, one hit a branch that smacked her on her face and she snarled. Leon was close to the flag only for Vanessa to do a jump and kick him down and take the flag.

Leon was impressed as he smirked and got up and fired some shots at her. She dodged one and another grazed her shoulder but she did not really feel the pain as it was a basic handgun and she was a Tyrant. She swopped up the first flag and there was an explosive cheer from both Tyrants and humans. Vanessa was in the lead and outwitted THE Leon S. Kennedy. Some people, Svetlana noticed, were already betting. An unknown NE-T asked her, “So Former President, do you think Vanessa is going to win?” this was the first time someone was speaking to her as though she was just another regular person, just part of the community, a tear slid down and she wiped it away, stating, “She can win but as she is a larger Tyrant class, she may easily be ambushed. So, the human players have a chance too. It is hard to decide.”

“Spoken like a true politician. Or a strategist, You know what, if the humans win, I will take you out to coffee.” Svetlana was very shocked, was this Tyrant asking her out on a date? Was that even possible? “Or, I just buy you coffee, whatever works. You know you are seeing Prime Nova, it’s a well-known sport in Arrkoth. Sometimes, Draugen participates.”

“Who is Draugen?” Svetlana asked, genuinely curious.

“Oh man lady, I like you already.” The NE-T laughed, “That is one pompous guy. He is known as a resident asshat. He is a NE-v T Type and a very stupid Tyrant.”

“Careful Shiv. You don’t wanna get into another row with Draugen.” An Hypnos Tyrant seemed to have come around them, “I know it was a year ago, but still.”

“Hey, Dude, it wasn’t a biggie. Me and Draugen fight a lot but we get back together.” The Tyrant named Shiv seemed to speak, “So, Shall I call you Svetlana?”

Svetlana smiled, “Yeah you can call me that.”

“Oh hey, I am Deer. I know, it sounds like ‘Dear’, like some stupid opening of a letter. But it means the animal. The human who raised me said I was beautiful and gentle as a deer. Well, I wasn’t really. But you know, maybe he meant my temperament was good.” The Hypnos Tyrant introduced himself, he looked at Innara, “So, Innara was in your security detail and Celio,” he pointed at the human, “You are lucky Innara is super awesome. He is a good-hearted guy.”

Svetlana felt awkward hearing that. It was just weird hearing of Tyrants as ‘good-hearted guy.’ She was used to the as basic bitches of a bioweapons and now she was encountering them as people. She was happy though. Happier than she had been in a long time. She felt seen and heard and not treated as just some weird demi-human/demi-BOW and locked away. A menace to society. She felt comfortable with them. This did clench her heart a bit. Was she only comfortable with other BOWs? Did that mean she was a BOW? Well, she also felt comfortable with the human, Celio, and he had been giving her encouraging looks. So, she felt at ease with the company. Perhaps, Arrkoth wouldn’t be so bad. Perhaps, what she had needed was this transfer.

Leon began to run again. Vanessa had the flag meaning there had to be one of hers nearby as well. Vanessa seemed to have gotten what he was trying do pushed back on her heal to chase him and he just laughed. As if he didn’t care that a larger-than-life Tyrants after him. He didn’t mind being defeated by her on their first round. It felt nice. You could learn a lot more in defeat thana victory many a times. So, he was more alert now, but recognised admiration in Vanessa for his Licker trick. He had been used to fighting BOWs and Tyrants and knew that surprise tactics were sometimes the best strategy. He was a patient one and did not always go after people directly. This was a huge contrast with him and the other hero, Chris Redfield. Redfield had always been obsessed to get after Wesker, he would be direct in his pursuit. Jill had some of this quality as well. Ironically, even though he was an FBI agent, he had more in common with international spy, Ada Wong. Perhaps, when they met all those years ago in Racoon City, their tactics had also rubbed off of each other.

Vanessa was hot on his trail as he got one of HER flags and made himself a target as he ran forward, zipping because of her longer strides and then at one point halting making Vanessa almost trip. Then he just moved in another direction with a smirk making Vanessa curse ‘Mother fucker’, but with a grin on her face and half fell on her knee but spun around and gave chase. The crowd was going wild as Vanessa and Leon were trying to outsmart the other and keep each other at a distance. Leon shot at Vanessa and she carefully dodged. Only to REALISE. He had not shot at HER. She looked up and saw a jammer half-dead and then explode in her face, blinding her for a minute as flashbang. “ARGH!” she screamed, though impressed that Leon was able to observe it and narrow it down. She threw a knife at him, large for her and not so sharp or big for Leon and he grazed his shoulder. He bled only a little as the protective foam protected him. Yet, he was dealing with an Elite Tyrant, so the impact speed and gravity had him slipping and falling over. “Get over here!” he screamed in his radio as Vanessa was recovering by getting dust out of her eyes and debris from her shoulders as the jammer exploded.

Suddenly, she saw that the scoreboard was showing a tie. Why? It seemed in her mess to get Leon, Alexander and pocketed and deposited a flag in one of the metal grates that held flags for safe keeping. She had yet to put hers as she lunged at them, with both drive and adrenalin, “I am going to get you two!” Only to have Alexander deposit two flash bangs on her and pellet her with rifle bullets making her roar and fall opposite Leon, who quickly rolled out of the way. “Fuck!” she cursed and could hear Alexander and Leon snicker. Not for long as she punched Leon down, “Okay, I deserved that.” Leon laughed as he was out of breath from her hit force.

She got up and shook off the noise. Temporary and not too much of a problem for her and she started to chase after Alexander as Leon was clearly down for the while. Alexander threw a flash bang and a gas grenade b she pushed her leg of a tree and jumped high, making him look at her in awe, and touched down with a giant ring on the ground and avoided the trajectory of those devices. “Shit!” Alexander was running for his life. A drone surprised him, as if muscle memory, he pushed it on the path of Vanessa, who flung the drone high on the air and it landed to its satisfactory death. Vanessa was close but Alexander dodged her arm, by skidding into a shrubbery and just sliding forth. One of the many advantages of being smaller than her, as she skidded with a frustration in her breath, kicking up mud and dust and grass, on the forest floor and went after him as he pushed past a tree and she almost hit it down. She saw he was close to a metal box to deposit the flag but then she pushed her body forth and skidded on the ground and grabbed his feet, making him lean back and he was half fallen, when she grabbed her flag and put it on her and deposited their flag in the box. Her score was secured and now she was wearing a flag on her as a target. She was mindful of Alex. He noticed. Well, he was still recovering.

Only she heard a scoreboard ring again and saw that Leon was close to depositing their flag and so she left Alexander and rushed at his location, some yards away, effectively blocked by trees and tall grass and bushes, they were not allowed to always knock down tree but even she knocked most of them down, she wouldn’t have been able to reach Leon. Who got out of her way as she lunged at him, but put the flag in. So, he was a point ahead, only to see their flag on her. The crowd was screaming as Leon now lunged at Vanessa, but she easily pushed him aside and there was a run. This game had been designed short for today. They had only a handful of flag, perhaps only three. Now that two of her side was down, meant she had two more to get and they had one. Leon was trying to shoot and snag at her and effectively shot her with the minimised Lightning Hawk, she skid and fell and before he could come at her she just got up again. Leon was amazed by her stamina and her endurance, as she was also doddging his gas grenades now and one that did het her in face she just push forward coughing.

Soon, she was near the tower and saw the final flag. Leon effectively shot at a Licker to impede her but she got a scrape and just pulled it aside and threw it at Leon, who also dodged the skrieking airborne mass as she tried to climb the tower, though now the tower artillery was online. Cindy had switched it on, and it had shot her with capsizing bullets, and she was shot down once. Only to roll over and try again. Leon shot at her, but she did something she thought she wouldn’t do. She grabbed Leon and started the climb with one hand . The ammunition was not deadly to humans and only created impact bruising on Tyrants as well. Leon was helpless for a minute, but she made him fall safely on a grass. Though he was somewhat bruised; he was horribly beaten. Soon she got the flag from the tower and saw Alexander had caught hers.

They both jumped down from the towers and ran for it. She thew a flash bang alongside Alexander. She was hit by his but he effectively dodged hers. Though as they ran and skid, they both pushed flags in the deposit box. She with her two and he with the final one. The crowd was quiet for the moment but then cheered. It was a draw. But Vanessa had beaten the legendary Leon S. Kennedy more than once today. Leon chuckled as he came up and, he grabbing his hip, a bit jostled by her letting him fall. The Towers were not so high up and it was made to be safe for most humans and Tyrants.

“Well, that was something.” Leon said, “Hey Buddy, you did well.”

Alexa was breathless. But he smiled, really smiled as he shook hands with Vanessa. Vanessa also smiled and additionally shook hands with Leon. “Well, played.” He told her.

“You too.” Vanessa grinned.

Vanessa’s named was being chanted, “VANESSA! VANESSA! VANESSA! VANESSA!”

“Well, it is a tie. If you still wanna have coffee?” Shiv was asking Svetlana.

“Maybe I should come alone to make the thing less awkward?” Deer laughed and Shiv gave the Hypnos dirty looks.

“I don’t mind either way.” Svetlana didn’t, she had been applauding and cheering for Alexander Kozachenko, her former enemy. She had been so impressed by him. The way he was holding his own even after so many stuff happened. Though Alexander now looked really tired and some medics came into the field. There was Dr. Yvonne Byron, she could hear him scolding him a bit but telling him he did well and now maybe they should do a check-up on him.

“Well, you had your _fun_.” Peter Hanson’s voice cut through the jubilations, he looked angry, “We should be getting settled in, Svetlana.” It was the commanding way he was emphasising on her name, which she and the Tyrants caught, “Not waste our time here with such _childish_ games.”

“That game wasn’t childish. It was a combat simulation as well as a tactics tutorial.” Shiv was visibly offended. Prime Nova was such an intense game even if it was not humans vs. Tyrants, to be called ‘childish’ was an insult.

“I wasn’t speaking to you.” Peter snapped at him, but looked a bit shaken, when both Shiv and Deer frowned and Shiv growled a bit, “Mind yourself!” Peter nervously spoke, “I am a person of importance!”

“Peter, please.” Svetlana attempted to reason, “I was just enjoying myself.”  
  
“YOU don’t get to choose what is always for YOU.” The way Peter’s voice was raising made Celio and Innara take notice, “You are under MY care. Why can’t you just listen? Do you want to be deemed not _human_? You know you might be get _terminated_ , right? Let’s just go.”   
  
Svetlana looked really taken aback and scared. It was true. She could be eliminated. Though Shiv, Innara, Deer and Celio all looked very suspect on the encounter. “Can I speak to you later?” she meekly asked Shiv, not mentioning the coffee, least Peter, “I don’t know what I am supposed to be doing.” Shiv was nodding when Peter grabbed Svetlana’s hand and was literally dragging her away. Celio got up wanting to give Peter a piece of his mind but Innara stopped him with his claw, almost like a shield, and mouthed a ‘no.’ It may mean trouble to Svetlana at the moment.

“Why can’t you listen?” Peter was dragging her, “You weren’t as rebellious as this. Maybe, this was a mistake. You never used to disobey me in Europe. I only want what is best for you.” He was sounding like an angered authoritarian and Svetlana was too weak at the moment to break away from his hold.

They entered the room and Peter was looking around as he quickly locked the door. “Peter, why are you being like this?”  
Svetlana meekly protested as she looked at the marks, bruises on her arm, where he had dragged her, “I was just enjoying myself. It was a fun match. Why are you getting so angry.”   
  
“SHUT UP!” Peter;s voice boomed and it scared her, “You are acting unhuman! Enjoying all these violent sports! Do you realise they may kill you?! Stop being a stupid woman! You should listen to me! I know what is best for you!”

“No! You don’t always!” Svetlana hated it, it was like she wasn’t a woman in her 60s, but was being treated as some sort of teen, “Why don’t you get it? I am a person. I don’t fully care about what you term or they term as ‘human.’ I was enjoying myself and fitting in. Why can’t you see —”

She could not finish as he backhanded her. Making her hit the wall. As she attempted to get up he punched her twice. Svetlana was crying and she felt the kick in her chest. “Look what you made me do.” Peter was pulling her hair, her face was bloody as her nose broke, she was struggling, she was weak, “You are so incorrigible at times. You don’t listen and act out.” He punched her again, but she spat blood at him and that made him punch her more. Her eyes were now bloodied and she was struggling to get out of the room when he pulled her back and it ripped her sweater. Svetlana screamed and someone knocked at the door. “Dr. Hanson, is everything okay?”

“Yes, it is, you know the Former President. She gets unhappy at times and is settling in.” The security guard went away before she could call out for help and she was punched again. “Keep quiet, Svetlana.” He kicked her again as she is scrambling up and now, he had a hold of her, “Look, what you are making me do.” He said again, “We are having a quarrel. You always do this. Make me do these things. You don’t understand all I want is the best for you.”   
  
He pushed her down on the bed. Svetlana started crying. She tried to fight back but he had tied up her hands again and had pushed the needle in. “No….” she weakly cried, “No, please. Peter. Dr. Hanson. Just leave me alone.” She sobbed as she struggled against the binds.   
  
“Look what you are making me do?. I told you last time that I won’t like it when you don’t listen to me. When you don’t behave. Now, it’s been a long time. But you need to learn that you belong to me. That I am helping you. I am keeping you alive in so many ways. I am helping you fight those discriminatory bastards so that they do not kill you. And here, you are. _Lusting_ after Tyrants.” Peter spat out the last. He seemed incredibly angry. And he also sounded jealous. Really jealous.

“No, that’s not true, Peter…” Svetlana’s face was pushed down, and he effectively tore off her skirt, it was not a strong material, she started struggling as her panties were ripped along her stockings, her shoes had already been thrown on the ground, “No, Peter, please.”

“No. You need to learn how much I am doing for you. How much you _belong_ to _me_.” Peter was pushing her legs apart.

Svetlana just thought of the fun she was having at Prime Nova. She was thinking how _safe_ she had actually felt with the Tyrants Shiv and Deer. How Shiv had asked her out for coffee. How it had been such a long time since anyone had asked her for anything. How Deer had also offered to come along. She had not had friends since her presidency. Even her aid, once so humble and obedient, even so far as to crush on her (She had noticed), had to speak against her for his freedom. He had visited her for a year, apologetic and kind, and then he had forgotten about her. Just like that. Of course, she heard later, he may have been responsible for hiring Ada Wong in the first place or been in on it. He had married and moved on. She was just some modified human who served as a president once. Everyone around her had a life. She was now excluded from most things that constituted as a life.

After Peter was done, she heard him say how much he loved her. It had been a while. So, she was bleeding. He had only been gentle after his anger had dissipated. He had untied her and held her close. “Look at us, two peas in the pod again.” Svetlana was softly crying. The first time Peter did it, she had been so lonely and neglected and scared, and her body had responded in a different way because it had been long, she said ‘no’ many times, but Peter had not stopped. It became a routine. He would sometimes come to her cell at night and she would have to let him do what he wanted. She had some desires for bodily comfort as well. She was confused and she was weak. He would always bring her presents too. Say how he was her beau. She knew what it was, but she was afraid to tell anyone.

Would anyone even care? She was not given basic rights and even identifying her as a human took some time. Would they even classify what was happening to her as _abuse_ and _rape_? She knew some of the security knew. Though Hanson had effectively paid them to shut up. And no one really cared about her enough to even bring that up. She was not really a ‘person’ to most of the security and so whatever happened to her, whether it was abuse and violation, they cared less. Some of the security had been freedom fighters once, so they concluded, anything that happened to Svetlana, she _deserved_ it. Svetlana knew she had harmed their families or their people. She had not known their anger and spite to her, extended in this way. She was vulnerable and she was so outside the periphery of normalcy of society and individuality. She was just discourse. Discourse was not a person or a subject.

“Ah, Svetlana, feeling you again. I am so sorry. I been so caught up in our move that I was not able to take care of you. Sorry, if I was a bit rough.” She was bleeding and Peter had somewhat put some antiseptic on the wound, as a scientist he had a bottle in his lab pocket, He spoke with this sickly-sweet voice, Svetlana couldn’t even look at him as she softly cried, “I am sorry, but you were being so rude to me again. Look, you made me do it. You know that Svetlana. You made me do it. Now, do not cry. We are going to become better again. I know we are.”

Svetlana let him speak whatever he wanted. She was tired and bruised. She was getting sleepy. So, she fell asleep.

When she woke up, she saw it was past 8pm. She heard a few stray birds, and the evening was dark blue. Almost black. The navy blue of the evening had arrived. She heard the rising and falling chest of her attacker, her doctor. Peter was sleeping without guilt or regret as usual. He had done this to her over the years so there was a less feeling of it. Sometimes, she had kid herself to believe it was not so bad. She did not protest and was ashamed to enjoy some of the sex. After all, she had needs and wants. She knew telling anyone would be useless as she knew many people hated her. She tried to get up. But she fell, down on the bed. As a partial BOW, she did heal faster. One of the few ways, hurting her was made non-culpable by Peter. She was a BOW in many ways. But Peter was hellbent she was human. One of the times he had raped her, and she had cried after, he concluded that as she felt emotionally wrecked, she was obviously a human in this regard. That was cruel. Peter knew it. But he was also deluded herself to believe that her fast healing was due to him not doing any wrong. Not realising that she was just cursed with the BOW trait and that she wanted to survive.

She got up and saw that she was naked. Peter had undressed her again without her consent and he had gotten rid of her bloody clothes. She was feeling so nakedly exposed as she had also been holding her close. Deluding himself that he was her lover. Or, someone of importance. Svetlana sobbed a bit. She felt so alone and frightened in the world. Who could she turn to? A part of her wanted to die already. But she didn’t wish to die as some victim of sexual crime. She just…something in here did not wish to accept it.

She went and decided to take a long shower. She scrubbed herself clean and hated what was happening to her. She was afraid to tell Arrkoth personnel what happened. They may have noticed that Dr. Hanson had stayed in the room longer, but they may have also gotten that down as protocol to keep her maintained. It had only been two hours so not long. From what she had seen, she had come to a place called the South Western Residences and dormitories. She was on the sixth floor and from what she heard from before, especially with some of her heightened senses, this floor’s wing was less inhabited. While she was falling asleep after her assault, Hanson had been telling how his room was down the hall. She hadn’t had time to see the room.

So many details had been evaded her while she was scared and so worried and nervous. She had almost peed herself. She had before when Hanson had abused her, but he always cleaned her laughing and teasing. As though, she was a child. Hanson had been her doctor close to 10 years. Well, became a primary doctor six years ago. He was the protegee of a Freedom Fighter who served as her doctor, his name was Galbert. Galbert was firm with her, sometimes rude and curt, always hard but never abusive. The doctor had retired and wanted to spend time with his family. Svetlana’s government had killed his wife. He had obviously held her responsible. But as he had a younger daughter, one of their miracle babies, he wanted to be there for her. His son had died as a freedom fighter, one of them, and he had two other children left. Both were older but he was so relieved and happy to have them around.

When she first met Peter Hanson, he was 19 years old. He was a genius they said and had wanted to work with BOWs and also help afflicted humans. He had worked in one of the labs in the city, farther away, under Galbert’s care. When Galbert decided he needed an assistant, he came over. “It was like love at first sight.” Peter had told her once, when they were having dinner, he had not raped her still then, she had gotten confused, “Your project was so interesting to me.” He had continued without pausing, as though he had done or said nothing out of the ordinary, he was now in his 20s and had replaced Galbert. Galbert still came and visited but Hanson always showed immense frustration when he did, “I heard you were tough. I could see it. But I also heard you were beautiful. I could also see it.”

“I am old enough to be your mother.” She had curtly responded, something about the exchange was getting creepy and she did not know why but all her human and augmented instincts was telling her to slash and flee.

“But you are not my mother.” Peter looked at her with a keen gaze, a glint in his eyes. Svetlana, initially, was a bit attracted. Who wouldn’t be? A younger, handsome man was giving her attention and her days were numbered. It was hard even when he assaulted her the first time, it had happened so quickly, and he was saying how he had always wanted her. It was confusing. She had been attracted to him but she knew she didn’t give him consent. And, afterwards, she was scared to tell him off. Some of the guards didn’t care. What could she do? She was so confused. She had liked him. Was happy he was interested in her. She knew he would help her case but she hadn’t wanted it THAT way. NOT THAT WAY!

She felt so ashamed. And, she didn’t know what she could have done differently. After six years, she knew it didn’t matter. She knew Hanson had sped up Galbert’s retirement from her. He had wanted her and he had made sure he would have her. It didn’t matter he was a genius in his field and all the accolades he had. He was her **rapist** , and he would a _lways_ be **a rapist**. He had manipulated her vulnerable and sensitive state and circumstances to trap her and he was hellbent on keeping her with him. Seeing her with others, enjoying herself, no. What he wanted was her to be ‘human’ in the ways _he_ defined. He even made her dress _nicely_ and somewhat feminine: to keep her gender valid. There was also a way to make him feel he was having sex with a human woman as well. Whenever she had a breakdown out of anger or pain for her Plagas he would at times punish her for her ‘tantrums’ and isolate her or not give her food. He would do this so that she would ‘behave.’ She had special and different needs but he would not acknowledge them. To him, she was not being what he wanted. Never really getting her. Never fully intended to. She was his _obsession_. An obsession loses their personhood by being perverted in the perspective of the other. And, Svetlana had become last year’s news so it was easier for her to be abused and no one to really notice.

After she took her shower, she came out and saw Peter. He wanted to give her a hug but she evaded it only for him to persist, “Hey, Svetlana. I helped you with your sheets. Don’t worry. I am right down the hall. Maybe, as soon as they deem you as a human. We can finally be together, openly. No more secrets.”   
  
She couldn’t look at him. “Now, don’t be like this Svetlana.” He tried to kiss her but she was pushing him away, “Okay, I know I was a bit rough. But you weren’t listening to me baby. C’mon, you know I love you.”   
  
“Just leave me alone.” Some tears came into her eyes as she wiped them away, “Just go to your room.”   
  
“You want me to leave.” He was getting angry, “Why? So you can suck on Tyrant cock?”   
  
“No, I wish to rest.” Svetlana reasoned, looking angrily at him.   
  
Peter looked like he wanted to hit her again, but he smiled, “C’mon babe, we can rest together.”

“No, I wish to be by myself.” Svetlana insisted.

“Why do you make things difficult.” Peter tried to pull on her towel and she just gasped and moved away, “C’mon, we can make love again. We can relax again.”

She wanted to cry. The way he said ‘make love again.’ Always deluded himself. The bitch had raped her and he wasn’t going to call it that. “No.” she firmly spoke, getting him annoyed, “I am hurt. You were rough.” Which was the truth.

“Well, you made me do it!” Peter shot back, a shameless cretin, “I would have been nicer but you had to make me mad.”

“Peter, we can talk again in the morning. I am tired.” She was getting away from him as he got closer. She was in her own duplex, so she was walking down the stairs, she hadn’t really looked around and wanted him to leave her space. She got down and Peter had looked like he had cleaned up a bit when she was in the bathroom.

He looked at her, “Well, I wanna spend the night with you.” While he was smiling, Svetlana wanted to gouge his eyes out, “No one would know. We can do it like we always do.”   
  
“Peter, I can’t. I am hurt. You were too rough.” She stared again. She wanted him to leave and she literally was not in the mood or health to just take him raping her again. Even if he said it would be nice.

“That is your fault!’ he said again, “If you were not being so petulant, I would have been nicer.” Though he saw her, tired, “We can just lie down together. No one has to know.”

“I don’t wanna. I just want to be alone. And I am going to get out of this room and flaunt my wounds if you don’t.” Svetlana was getting impatient, she was too tired, furious and hungry, yes very hungry, and she was in pain, why wouldn’t he just leave?

“What?” Peter looked angry but also scared, “Why would you do that? Why are you misbehaving again? You know I love you.”   
  
“Yes, so please leave me alone. I need some sleep. I need to be by myself.” She couldn’t look at him.

Peter looked like he wanted to stay, “But…” he looked at her, “Svetlana, won’t you miss me?”

“You are right down the hall. I am sure I could come to your room if I needed.” She says this and look at him a bit.

“Alright, I will be back tomorrow early though.” Peter seemed to have decided to leave her alone, “Maybe you will behave better tomorrow. We can have breakfast. We can tour the facility better.” Peter was again leaving out all the abuse and thinking them a couple, “Isn’t it great, Svetlana? Soon when you are deemed a human we can do so much more together. We will be together all the time.”

“Maybe you should go.” That is all she stated as he just seemed so happy and left her alone. She cried a bit as he left and decided to go upstairs again. They had given her a lot to wear. She wore some shorts and a tee. She missed not being dressed so ‘nice.’ To make a statement, to show people she was so ‘human’ or whatever. She didn’t want to always be a performance. She took some painkillers. She was hurting from the attack. She looked at the mirror, she had some soft bruises but her BOW self-had healed some of her. In a way, she was happy, it would evade the shame of telling others what had happened.

She was too tired to explore now her own duplex flat and decided to make some delicious tea. She was making the tea when she heard a knock on the door. She almost dropped the kettle but then cautiously, went to it. She opened it. She looked at the keyhole. _Nervous_ , expecting it to be Peter. What she noticed was a form like a NE-T. Though he looked bulkier than Shiv.

“Yes?” she opened the door, safer with him than that tapeworm, Peter, “May I help you?”   
  
“Oh, it’s okay, Former President Svetlana Belikova. I was supposed to be in your security detail. But, I was called away. Dr. Gresham did not want anything bad happening to me. You saw the protestors, I mean they are no longer there but you know. They almost expected someone to attack you, though it was kept more or less a secret when you were arriving.” He was waiting for her to let him in, in a nice manner, she was relieved and she did and closed the door immediately as he came in, he looked at her sudden ways and was a bit confused but smiled nevertheless, his sharper teeth evident to her, but her instincts did not scream at her at all, “I am Draugen.”

“Oh, hello.” She says this quietly but with some happiness in her tone, “I have heard of you.”

“Oh? I know it may not be the best things, but I understand it won’t be so bad.” Draugen grinned, “Are you okay?” He asked this nicely, “You seem a bit jumpy.”

“Oh no. I am just…it’s a new place.” Svetlana spoke a half-truth, “I really wasn’t expecting anyone.” But she went and put two mugs out and dipped in the tea bags of Earl Grey, “I was just making some tea. And some instant noodles. Please join me.” She wanted ANY OTHER COMPANY than that fucker, Peter.

Draugen sat down with her. Something about her was off and it was not her BOW. He could sense something was up but didn’t mean to push it. The chairs did support Tyrants so he sat down. Though he smelled a pheromone. He was also taught to home in on it. It was the overworking of Plagas when someone had been wounded. He wondered why he smelled some of it from Svetlana. Though, he did not question her on that either.   
  
“Thank you.” It was nice as he had tea with her. She was quiet. Draugen wasn’t used to being quiet but his parasite told him to just enjoy her presence. He found himself thinking of Alaric Gresham and Kontane Vidane. He could go back to Alaric tonight. But he hadn’t seen Kontane. He was missing her. The world was turning darker as night crept in.   
  
Small crickets chirped but not many. It was winter. “I heard it may snow tomorrow.” Draugen spoke while having the tea.

“I got sweaters.” Svetlana went upstairs and got a cardigan. She enjoyed Draugen’s presence and the tea. Feeling she was doing more than surviving in a long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Peter is a degusting filth. I knew I was going to make him one. I really went there. After all, when a person who is considered non-human, and somewhat a BOW, do people actually look at them being abused? Or, do they even consider the ethics of the situation? The parameters of it? I knew some people in the RE universe wouldn't care what happened to Svetlana. And, I knew, this may make it easier for her to get viscously abused and it may happen for long. Not that Svetlana is weak. She isn't. But she is afraid on what people think of her and what she could really do. Right now, she doesn't know what to do. It was very sad to write but I knew I would write on it. 
> 
> Please review and give me your feedback. Well, onwards to the next chapter,

**Author's Note:**

> Yup, Jill Valentine and Nemesis are here too now! I am sorry if the first chapter seems slow. I just wanted the introductions and all of that stuff out of the way! Expect plot, fluff and maybe even smut in the next few chapters|!


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